The Fish Fall in Love (2006)

Sadly Over-hyped

Instant Favorite.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Iran certainly has been a contender for some very interesting films (and I mean that in the good sense...of course). 'The Fish Fall In Love',from 2005 manages to cement that fine reputation. There has long been a relationship with cinema & food that entices audiences. The plot here:when Aziz returns from a twenty plus year prison sentence in a Tehran prison,he just wants to return to his home,located by the Caspian Sea,only to find that his ex fiancée has turned it into a popular restaurant. Atieh (his ex lover)sees Aziz & panics that he wants his house back,and attempts to sway him from taking back his house by letting him stay in one of the unused rooms (and supplying him with a non stop array of mouth watering meals). Does Aziz take back his house? I certainly won't spoil it for you. Besides all of that lovely food on display,the photography is lush with splashes of colour in the right places (oranges are a metaphor for life here). The film wins over with a well written & directed screenplay (by first time writer/director,Ali Rafiee),with a mostly unknown cast (although, the films's central female lead,Roya Nonahali has several films under her belt,already). The film's photography is a treat for the eye. This film is sparsely distributed by an independent studio that only lends their films out to art galleries & film societies,so a bit of searching out will be a pre requisite (plus,as far as I know,there's no DVD release out there). Spoken in Farsi with English subtitles. Not rated,this film serves up a few rude words,but is otherwise fine for older children,with a bit of patients (films from Iran can be a bit slowly paced).

Ask him. Ask him about his whereabouts for the past twenty years. He's a nice man. He has no intentions of casting you and your daughter out of his ancestral home.Tell her. Tell her that you've been toiling away in jail, decade upon decade, anxiously awaiting this belated homecoming. She still loves you. She never stopped hoping that you'd someday return to her.One comprehensive exchange between these former lovers is all that's needed to clarify the historical, the here and now, and the imminent future. But a forthright inquiry as a means to gather information must be an outlandish concept to Iranian men and women. They'd much rather assume the worst than set the story straight.She believes that her days as a restaurant owner are over.He thinks she doesn't love him anymore.That's "Mahiha ashegh mishavand" in a nutshell.Are uncommunicative men and women a cultural norm, or is this mutual self-perpetuating reluctance to pry a plot contrivance to keep them apart. In other words, do we apply the same criteria to "Mahiha ashegh mishavand" as we would to an American film. If we do, this food film has a classic idiot plot. Another idiot plot, or another instance of the quiet man's obfuscation, contributes to the daughter's flourishing confusion about her fiancé's sudden disappearance. Aziz(Reza Kianian) could ease the girl's mind by mentioning that her man was en route to jail when he first arrived in town. Not a peep, however, escapes from this man's lips. Is this an instance of honor among men, or, again, another plot contrivance? "Mahiha ashegh mishavand" gets repetitive real fast, in which scene after scene shows us the same voiced uncertainty from the mouths of hard-working women concerning their futures. As a result, the static narrative has very little momentum, which wouldn't be a problem if the restaurant was a festive place where interaction between the women and the patrons took place. But the women cook, the women serve, with nary a word to their customers."Mahiha ashegh mishavand" exists in a vacuum. The entire story is contingent on Aziz, or Touka(Golshifteh Farahani), making the first move. Nothing of any real consequence can occur until this happens, and nothing does.

Two intertwined love and separation stories. After a long absence, a man returns to his house now occupied by a previous flame. The parallel story is that of the woman's daughter who is about to suffer the same loss of her sweetheart that her mother suffered. The story focus is on the man. What he will do? Will the old love be rekindled? Will the daughter's fate be different? The man's intentions, actions and feelings are purposely obfuscated to keep us wondering. But the future path is easily guessed. The film is predictable. The depiction of charged emotions is often unconvincing, especially when coming from the main actress. The actress playing the daughter does a better job.The star attraction is the food. The action mostly takes place in a restaurant, which the man's house has become. Many plates of delectable dishes often fill the frame of the screen. You leave the theater hungry. The message is clear: the most effective way for a woman to get to a man's heart is through his stomach.

Mahiha ... bears many similarities with another notable Iranian film, Cafe Transit. In both movies a single mother uses her culinary skills to run a restaurant and support her daughter. Food also plays a pivotal role in both films and perhaps even more so here where director Rafii and his famed cinematographer Kalari make sure that the camera lingers on every dish prepared. The main difference is that here the central character is a man, Aziz (Reza Kianian), an ex-political prisoner, returning home after 22 years and re-igniting an old love affair with Atieh (Roya Nonahali) who is running a restaurant , in a property still owned by Aziz, to support her daughter. Aziz's return raises questions in the restaurant and within the small coastal community: has he returned to reclaim his old property or his old love? Mahiha is a less complex film than Cafe Transit and has a slenderer storyline. It is, however, finely acted by the two leads and is consistently engaging and watchable. Kalari's camera work, is another major plus.