The White Balloon

Razieh is a determined seven-year old girl with a mind bent on one thing, and one thing only on the eve of the Iranian New Year: acquiring the beautiful, fat goldfish she noticed in the front window of the local pet shop. Unfortunately, her mother is not at all inclined to part with any money on this busy evening. Razieh's constant nagging finally pays off, with a little help from her older brother. Off she runs to the pet shop, a note in hand. However, there are a lot of distractions on the way for a curious seven-year old, and the precious note has an unfortunate tendency to disappear!

The White Balloon is Jafar Panahis first feature film. Based on a script dictated onto a tape recorder during a car ride with famed Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, it charmed audiences throughout the world and won him the Cannes festival prize for best first feature film in 1995.

In order to portray the rich Teheran street life, Panahi cast mostly non-professional actors, including heartbreaker Aida Mohammadkhani. The child actors deliver great performances under Panahis masterful direction. On her way to the pet shop, Razieh meets a colourful selection of characters, from travelling snake charmers to friendly old ladies, overworked tailors and soldiers on leave. Panahi infuses these vignettes with his signature combination of humour, feeling and authenticity, providing us with a picture of modern Iran from a child's perspective.

Allying realistic esthetics with charm, humour and sensibility, The White Balloon is a beautiful moral fable with a human heart.
The film is suitable for all, but we recommend it for children aged 9 years and over.

Jafar Panahi is one of the leading contemporary Iranian filmmakers, winning wide-ranging international recognition and numerious prizes from major festivals for his films The White Balloon (1995), The Circle (2000) and Offside (2006). His films combine neorealist esthetics with biting humour and social commentary, with notable focus on the situation of Iranian women.

Despite being banned from filmmaking by Iranian authorities since 2010 and living under house arrest for periods of time, he has continued making and distributing films. His latest film Taxi (2015), shot under clandestine conditions in Teheran, won him the Golden Bear at the Berlinale film festival.