“Tale of the Sea” is the ninth film from Bahman Farmanara and based on his own script. A film which follows the themes of his films after the Iranian revolution and explores the life of an old author who recalls his recent bitter experiences in a nursing home, or perhaps the whole of the story is a figment of his imagination. The closeness of death and regrets of the past, are common themes of the director’s works and here as they pass through the mind of the old author they take on a new dramatic shape. A drama that positions the thoughts of the old man against reality. This causes his hard existence to become harder still, as demonstrated by the difference in his memory of his wife and her reality. A woman who the man believes is cold because due a having a transplanted heart, when the truth is that the reason behind the woman’s coldness is hidden in himself. Farmanara has tried to use the story of a man at the end of his life to also explore mental issues of youth and thus inject the film with a layer social commentary that elevates the film as a whole.
A Man on the Brink of a Cold Season \ Sahar Asrazad Review of “Grain”
