FILM-FORWARD.COMReviews of Recent Independent, Foreign, & Documentary Films in Theaters and DVD/Home Video
Directed by: Alireza Raisian. Produced by: Hossein Zandof. Written by: Kambozia Partovi. Director of Photography: Mahammad Aladpoush. Edited by: Hossein Zandof. Music by: Peymen Yazdanian. Released by: First Run Features. Language: Farsi with English subtitles. Country of Origin: Iran. 91 min. Not Rated. With: Leila Hatami, Nezam Manouchehri & Mehran Rajabi.
A big city couple drives down a lonely highway through the stark Iranian high desert. A
minor accident strands them in the middle of nowhere, near the ruins of a former train
station, where a small village of farmers etch out a living. The husband seeks out the
local mechanic, who’s also the de facto mayor and the schoolmaster. While the
mechanic sets out on his motorcycle with the husband to get the needed auto part, the
wife (Leili Hatami) is left to teach 10 kids, four grade levels crammed in a dirt hut
without electricity.
As glowingly photogenic as Isabella Rossellini, Hatami offers a reactive performance.
Wearing her head scarf, she's an Islamic Madonna, an immediate maternal figure for
the children, who are fatherless while their mothers are off working in the field. And
because of her personal problems, Hatami's character is instinctually drawn to them as
well. It takes her no time in getting to know the children. They are more than willing to
tell all on a classmate. Obedient and rambunctious, one moment they are asking
permission to answer a question, and the next they are running out the door to milk a
cow.
Deserted Station takes its time in drawing you in. The camera's unimposing point
of view keeps its distance, often filming the schoolroom interactions from the last row.
Yet the film does not feel at all detached from its characters. Rather, it is filled with
feeling, but far from sentimental or cloying. Its beautiful score enhances the overall
melancholia. Kent Turner
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