Special Program: Filmmaker in Focus: Amir NADERI

Iran / 1974 / 43 min.
Director: Amir NADERI

Produced by The Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children, Young Adults, the mid-length "Waiting" is an exquisite film perfectly conforming to the phrase "visual poem". The setting is a village in southern Iran looking out onto the Persian Gulf. Without a distinct story, the film depicts the actions of a young boy who is attempting to bring home a glass vessel filled with ice before it melts. However, this profile of a protagonist who behaves with a single-mindedness as if possessed by something is surely to be called the model for the protagonists in NADERI's works including, obviously, "The Runner" (1985) as well as "CUT" (2011) and "Mountain" (2016). The depiction of the religious ceremonies the young boy stumbles upon is also fascinating. The film has not been screened since the special program "Iranian Cinema Before the Islamic Revolution" held at Tokyo FILMeX 2003.