The main relationship is between the female driver (Mania Akbari) usually quoted as a driver but in one of the conversation with her son Amin it is clear she is a photographer.

Amin (Amin Maher) the pre teenage son is wonderfully acted, especially as the dialogue is very adult for most of the time but allows for outbursts appropriate to his age. I am not clear if the dialogue is intended to be normal for a child of his age, and if so Iranian children are incredibly intelligent. Amin appears in four scenes, first strongly rebelling against his mother for divorcing his father, then by the end of the film is more conciliatory but even so in the last scene where his mother picks him up for a visit her tells her to take him to grandma.

The other six scenes, two with her sister, and four with women she gives lifts to, a prostitute, an old woman and a fellow visitor to a mausoleum where they pray. These scenes explore the role of women in Iranian society, and the dominate position of men.

The writer/director Abbas Kiarostami seems to specialise in these examinations of various human conditions and I will be renting more.

Brilliant and wholly different angle on cinema
Review date: 2006-01-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

The first reviewer is absolutely right.

This film slowly (some may think, initially, too slowly) draws you in. A woman drives around a city, squabbles with her young son, talks to other passengers. We don't know where she is going, nor where the film is going.

And then, bang. Near the end, one of the most simple, moving, unforgettable bits of pure cinema you will ever see.

It's not Hollywood, but it is quite brilliant.

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