The Apple

In Tehran the neighbours submit a petition: two girls in one house have not been let outside for twelve years. Social services go to the house and find the twins. The father is old and the mother is blind; he says he shut them in to protect them. The girls come out into the street for the first time. They have to learn to walk, to speak, and to play with other children all at once. Samira Makhmalbaf made this first film at seventeen, and cast the real people from the event: the Naderi family themselves stood in front of the camera very shortly after it happened. That method places the film strangely between documentary and fiction and makes it ethically contested as well. The narrative does not turn the father into a monster; it shows him caught inside his own fear and poverty. The apple recurs as an image in the girls' hands reaching outward. Who it's for: Viewers who like Iranian cinema, films that sit between the real and the staged, and social drama. Who it's not for: Some will find putting real children in front of the camera uncomfortable. The pace is also very slow and there is almost no plot.