Film review: The White Balloon

The White Balloon (dir. Jafar Panahi, 1995). Abbas Kiarostami wrote Panahi's feature film debut, which tells a charming, unembellished story of an adorable (but incredibly stubborn) seven year old girl and her quest to buy a chubby white and red goldfish whose fins flutter like it's dancing (hopefully for 100 tomans). Panahi allows the film to unfold naturally in real time, imbuing even his minor characters with a sense of humanity and complexity. Panahi's careful consciousness of economic issues, along with his penetrating insight into human beings, reveals a vital voice in contemporary cinema and in documenting Iranian history, which makes his unjust imprisonment in Iran all the more unbearable. [And like so many great Iranian films, it is nearly impossible to find without the assistance of internet databases of questionable legality.] A.