‘The Painting Pool’ in review: ifilm exclusive

ifilm weekend flick ‘The Painting Pool’ is an award-winning movie from Iran cinema, depicting mentally challenged people.

The flick directed by Maziar Miri has managed to gain the audience choice award from Fajr Film Festival in Iran.

On an international scale, the title won the APSA UNESCO award at Asia Pacific Screen Awards in Australia.

This Saturday’s flick on ifilm narrates the story of a mentally challenged couple who is in love with each other and has a pre-teen.

Such mentally challenged people are not the ones who can be featured more often on the silver screen given that the way they think and behave may not be in congruent with the cinema business where words and actions play a pivotal role.

Even in Hollywood, movies centering on mentally challenged people are scarce as there is little knowledge about how such individuals think due to being mostly introverted.

Considering the complexity of this issue, the male and female leads of the flick, Shahab Hosseini and Negar Javaheriyan, must have had a hard time playing this couple. The director has also taken on a touch challenge in his career, helming this movie.

If you are wondering why the film was named ‘The Painting Pool’ look no further than the female lead’s interest in painting depicted in various scenes of the flick.

Watching the movie till the end may remind you of many international movies with a theme around mentally challenged people such as  ‘One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest’ by Miloš Forman and ‘I Am Sam’ by Jessie Nelson.

With the latter may be closely related to ‘The Painting Pool’ storyline as it follows the story of  a mentally-challenged father raising his daughter with the help of a unique group of friends.

Mentally-challenged people are under-represented in media and cinema around the globe. Thus, having the likes of ‘The Painting Pool’ hailing from Iranian cinema clearly shows the sophistication of such medium in Iran.

Regarding  the awards gained by the flick, one accolade that is the Fajr audience choice award reveals a subtle point about Iranian cinema audiences. Such award highlights the fact that Iran cinema audiences are sophisticated as they selected ‘The Painting Pool’ as their top pick.

It also indicated that you as an ifilmer is already a sophisticated viewer for choosing ifilm channel where you can watch the best of Iran movies and series.

AG/AG