The Jar (Khomreh)
Greek title: Το πιθάρι
Original title: Khomreh
Original title: Khomreh
Alternative titles:
To pithari
To pithari
Drama – Iran
Production year: 1992
Movie length: 86 minutes
Production year: 1992
Movie length: 86 minutes
Director: Ebrahim Forouzesh
Movie description:
The story is as straightforward as the title: In Iran in 1963, a large jar that functions as an elementary school’s sole vessel for their water supply develops a crack. A letter is forwarded to the superintendent of schools, but governmental bureaucracy proves as slow and inefficient as ever, so other steps have to be taken.
Mahmoud, the young, recently arrived teacher, asks one of the students’ fathers to do the work to repair the jar, but the man proves unwilling to do so with only good will as payment. When his pettiness leads to his son being taunted by the other students, the man agrees to fix it, but still requires supplies such as ash and eggs. The students agree to bring them, but most of their parents aren’t willing to part with the much-needed eggs, so almost everyone brings ash. And so on, with very few twists and turns along the way.
Because The Jar’s plot is minimal, the characters relax and expand in many surprising ways as the story unfolds. In the first few minutes, one becomes impressed at how well director Forouzesh captures the world of schoolchildren: their kindnesses and cruelties, the way embarrassment is diffused in angry outbursts, and how deference to authority becomes a matter of pride. When Mahmoud gradually comes to the foreground, however, new dimensions open. Splendidly portrayed by Behzad Khodavisi, Mahmoud is an odd, appealing mixture of open-hearted compassion and quick temper. Still inexperienced (the village elders are forever pulling him aside to tell him to take things easier), his pride is too easily wounded, and though he understands that he shouldn’t blame the children for their immaturity, he still does.
Many of the smaller roles are fleshed out by the writer and the actors as well, and the picture transpires slowly under Iraj Safavi’s sun-baked, casually elegant camera. The Jar is a film of small victories and even smaller defeats, but its simplicity is deceptive. Each detail is so well thought out that the slightest allegory speaks volumes, and the silences say even more.
Mahmoud, the young, recently arrived teacher, asks one of the students’ fathers to do the work to repair the jar, but the man proves unwilling to do so with only good will as payment. When his pettiness leads to his son being taunted by the other students, the man agrees to fix it, but still requires supplies such as ash and eggs. The students agree to bring them, but most of their parents aren’t willing to part with the much-needed eggs, so almost everyone brings ash. And so on, with very few twists and turns along the way.
Because The Jar’s plot is minimal, the characters relax and expand in many surprising ways as the story unfolds. In the first few minutes, one becomes impressed at how well director Forouzesh captures the world of schoolchildren: their kindnesses and cruelties, the way embarrassment is diffused in angry outbursts, and how deference to authority becomes a matter of pride. When Mahmoud gradually comes to the foreground, however, new dimensions open. Splendidly portrayed by Behzad Khodavisi, Mahmoud is an odd, appealing mixture of open-hearted compassion and quick temper. Still inexperienced (the village elders are forever pulling him aside to tell him to take things easier), his pride is too easily wounded, and though he understands that he shouldn’t blame the children for their immaturity, he still does.
Many of the smaller roles are fleshed out by the writer and the actors as well, and the picture transpires slowly under Iraj Safavi’s sun-baked, casually elegant camera. The Jar is a film of small victories and even smaller defeats, but its simplicity is deceptive. Each detail is so well thought out that the slightest allegory speaks volumes, and the silences say even more.
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