The Cyclist

Nasim is a refugee from Afghanistan living in Iran, and his wife is in hospital. He needs money for her treatment and can find it nowhere. A promoter brings him an offer: he will ride a bicycle in a ring, without stopping, for a week. People will come to watch, bets will be taken and money will be collected. Nasim agrees. He starts pedalling. The days pass, the crowd grows, traders begin to make money out of it, and nobody stops to ask what is happening to him. Mohsen Makhmalbaf writes and directs. The image at the centre is simple and repetitive: a man going in circles. The narrative turns that repetition into a figure; the man does not advance, he only turns. It is among the first films to treat the position of Afghan refugees in Iran, a matter that had almost no place in cinema at the time. The narrative builds no story of rescue. Everyone gathered around Nasim gains something from him: the promoter, the bettors, the vendors and the audience. It is from Makhmalbaf's early period and the manner is direct; the camera stands inside the crowd and realism is folded into metaphor. It was shown at international festivals and was part of the opening of Iranian cinema at the end of the eighties. Who it is for: viewers who like Iranian cinema and films built on social metaphor. Who it is not for: it is repetitive, the pace is slow, and the narrative deliberately confines itself to one image.