The White Meadows2009

I guess I'll have to watch Manuscripts Don't Burn to get a bead on this guy's politics, as the allegorical elements here aren't immediately obvious, though I have a few guesses. But what an experience. The combination of masterful cinematography and otherworldly locations conjures a compelling sci-fi/fantasy landscape on what must have been a shoestring budget. Our expectations of the mentor-mentee journey film are mercilessly turned upside down, brutal yet beautiful and somehow full of grace. The ending is mysterious and suggests tantalizing new possibilities. Highly recommended.

All of us have Rituals that address our suffering, and prepare us for death. In a materialistic

culture they may be less apparent, but exist no less. Tears are a gift of nature for such things.

Very poignant film. A remarkably complex, yet profoundly simple film. A thought piece that

goes to the root of Being. I felt the pace to be perfect. Ritual takes time to unfold, often

millennia to fully form. Iran produces some excellent film. Ancient cultures touch something

in Westerners, a feeling of mysticism that often seems a dream, or vague memory but that we

have left far behind, perhaps regrettably so. In such cultures, everything had meaning, which

is very far from the truth in western materialism. Ultimately, meaning is everything. Note

Pasolini's Medea.

Beautiful and dreamy. A bit long and slow in parts

Heart touching and poetic !!!

totally amazing _totally beautiful_i can't believe what people believe _a total mystery_i don't know how these people live in noplace and survive_probably one of the most mysterious wonderful films i've seen

Very melodic with a definite sense of the surreal.

A remarkable film, not only because it creates a world made up of myths, omens, rituals and allegories, as well as perceptions that are beyond surreal—mainly because they are rooted so deeply in the astonishing land- and seascapes as well as in sync with these remote people's experiences—but also because unlike any other film I can think of, it created a world unto itself, one that is dreamlike and mesmerizing but which did not require me to suspend disbelief. The best part for me was not quite knowing what era or location—beyond it being somewhere in Iran—the film was set in. Small physical clues suggested that it was in the present, but almost everything else which swirled within the arc of the overall story seemed ancient, distant and otherworldly, though somehow you knew this also wasn't the case. The allegories are supposed to have had a political dimension which I'll need to read about since the film's stories within stories stood on their own, self-contained and brimming their own internal logic, as real and unforgettable as the tangible weight of certain dreams one carries throughout one's life.

Beautifully haunting and not obvious at all.

The combination of an incredible location with mysterious characters works very well.

Simple and powerful.

It interested me at first then nothing.