Gabbeh
An exquisite visual smorgasbord, Gabbeh’s fantastical inclinations are well-served in Kalari’s cinematic hands. They create a storybook portrait of Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s idyllically-realised world. One that is both grounded and prone to flights of fancy. It’s a fairytale imagining of a modern domestic drama, in which the traditional mixes with the contemporary in a unique and extraordinary way. Captivating and resonant. Read more of the Gabbeh Movie Review.
Synopsis
Gabbeh is a magical and visually stunning film set in the arid countryside of Iran. An old man and woman have a richly coloured carpet that they cherish. They carry their antique rug (‘gabbeh’) to a river in order to wash it. When the rug is spread on the ground, a beautiful young woman, also referred to as ‘Gabbeh’, magically appears from it. She has woven the carpet and is the spirit of the carpet. Her story unspools before their eyes. The film then shifts focus to the young woman as the story relates her life to the audience: her uncle who is hoping to find a bride, and the man she longs to marry.
Although this young woman is in love with a man who follows her nomadic tribe on horseback, her stern and authoritarian father will not allow her to marry him. Meanwhile, Gabbeh’s uncle finds the woman of his dreams. Her mother gives birth, her little sister dies, and a goat is born. Eventually Gabbeh defies her father and runs off with her ardent lover, who howls at the moon.
Review
Award-winning cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari has worked on more than sixty-five films during his career, many of them critically and internationally acclaimed. Despite its unusual story, Gabbeh bears many of the traits present in his other films. His other films include A Separation, The Pear Tree and Leila. The traits are: artistic framing, vivid colours and rich detail in the costumes and landscape. These supplement Gabbeh’s own narration to allow the film an almost mythical aesthetic.
Kalari succeeds in capturing the beauty and colour of the film’s primarily rural setting, focusing on elements of the natural world – a tree, a cloud, a leaf – and their relation to the characters. In the interplay between sunlight and silhouette, familiar images are given an otherworldly quality, like Gabbeh herself, and attest to hidden realms, hidden layers of meaning, in the character’s autobiographical articulations.
Writer and director Mohsen Makhmalbaf is an inventive fabulist. He uses character, fantasy, reality, and spirituality to convey the mysteries of love, family, ritual, and creativity. This poetic and picturesque movie celebrates the gnarled beauty of the natural world. Also, the art of weaving, and the unique ways that particular story gives life shape and meaning. Gabbeh is a sense luscious film that stays with you long after the closing credits.
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