Deserted Station

2002-Iran-Road Movie/Psychological Drama

Type:Features

Release Date:

Starring: Leila Hatami, Nezam Manouchehri, Mehran Rajabi, Mahmoud Pakneyat

Directed by: Alireza Raisian

REVIEW SUMMARY

A photographer and his schoolteacher wife find themselves stranded in the desert when their car breaks down. A gentle parable about motherhood from Iran When not writing and directing his own movies, legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has proved remarkably generous in getting other projects off the ground. Between working on his accomplished multi-story drama Ten and writing a screenplay for slow burning heist movie Crimson Gold, Kiarostami outlined a treatment for this tale about motherhood in contemporary Iran.

The Deserted Station is a hauntingly beautiful project about a childless couple, a photographer (Manouchehri) and his wife (Hatami) whose names we never get to know. While on a pilgrimage across the country to pray for the safe delivery of their third child after two stillbirths, their car breaks down in the middle of the desert. Discovering a deserted village and its empty railway station, the couple enlist the help of Feizollah (Rajabi). While the two men go off in search of spare parts, the wife takes over teaching at the village school.

Juxtaposing her tearful sense of loss with the banter between the two men as they travel across the desert on Feizollah's motorbike, Raisian offers a psychologically acute portrait of this woman's pain. Convinced that "children are a part of life, they complete life and continue it," Feizollah's comments throw her plight into sharp relief. Defined only by her ability to have children, she's forced to face the fact that if she remains childless, Iranian society - and perhaps even her well-meaning husband - will make her feel as useless and deserted as the train station itself.

Best Actress (Hatami), 2002 Montréal World Film Festival