The White Meadows

A man named Rahmat rows between islands in the middle of a salt lake, collecting people's tears. Every island has a different ceremony, a different victim and a different belief. The film is not interested in the folkloric beauty of these rituals. It is interested in how collective cruelty puts on the costume of tradition: at each stop a community sacrifices someone and believes it is doing so for their own good. The tear collector only carries the grief; he stops none of it. The form is allegorical and close to arid: white salt flats, empty sky, very few people. Scenes are linked not by story but by a repeating procedure. The story behind the film is heavy. Mohammad Rasoulof wrote, directed and produced it, and Jafar Panahi edited it. Both were arrested on 1 March 2010, along with cinematographer Ebrahim Ghafori. Both were sentenced to six years for propaganda against the government; in 2011 the appeals court cut Rasoulof's sentence to one year, upheld Panahi's, and banned him from filmmaking for twenty years. Hassan Pourshirazi takes the lead. Who it is for: viewers who follow the allegorical strain in Iranian cinema and like slow, image-led films. Who it is not for: anyone who wants direct storytelling. The film does not explain its symbols and leaves some scenes deliberately opaque.