Amongst Iranian directors, Majid Majidi is the one most given to explosions of color and fantasy; his films “The Children of Heaven” and “The Color of Paradise” suggested a strong imagination mixed with sentiment.
We haven’t heard much from Majidi since his excellent 2001 film “Baran,” but his new one shows his emotional approach still intact. It’s called “The Willow Tree,” and like “The Color of Paradise,” this film takes blindness as its central metaphor.
Majidi uses a plot device that has become something of a standard: the idea of a blind man whose sight is restored. But banish all thoughts of the dismal Val Kilmer movie “At First Sight.” The man here is a respected professor, Youssef (Parvis Parastui), who lost his sight in a fireworks accident at the age of 8.
In the decades that have passed, he has arranged his life in Tehran to fit his disability: He has a loving wife, a secure job and many devoted students.
Everything changes in a clinic in Paris, where his sight is miraculously restored. In the sequences that follow, Majidi proves that he could give Steven Spielberg a run for his money when it comes to the expression of discovery and sheer joy.
We are with Youssef every step, as he sees again. The performance by Parvis Parastui is rich and emotional — when he gazes upon the face of his mother for the first time since childhood, the effect is devastating. These are marvelous scenes, but it’s to Majidi’s credit that he follows through on certain inevitable problems that arise.
All of Youssef’s relationships have changed, in ways that nobody can really understand at first. Least of all Youssef.
Majidi keeps this personal journey on a strangely intimate plane, confining much of the post-surgical action to Youssef’s home and backyard. For instance, Youssef’s hapless fascination with a young woman (now that he has his sight, he is susceptible to such things as surface beauty) is played out mostly with a single photograph he has of her.
Perhaps the best thing about “The Willow Tree” is that Majidi keeps a sense of mystery about many of his points. A friendly man with a bag of walnuts, a chance encounter with a pickpocket on a train — these are things that stick in your mind, even if they seem tangential to the story. But nothing is tangential to this story, as long as you keep your eyes open.
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