We don't need a constant supply of films from the Middle East that highlight the problems of this or that group, people do live relatively normal lives in these countries as well and I'm sure there are stories to be told that don't rely on the plight and suffering of a certain group whether Kurds, Afghani's, children, women et al.


I'm glad to hear this line of thought which I thought was taboo. I think Kierostami overrated though I know that surely is a forbidden thought even here. I would like to see an Iranian film in which people smile and have a good time. As I've pointed out in discussing The Circle, even those women in a doomed situaition would have had some light moments; it's human nature to want to laugh, more than ever when times are grim. They made jokes in the Nazi camps. A major failing for me of Persian filmmaking is their relentless deterministic hopelessness, which is worse than the focus on disadvantaged groups.

I liked Stray Dogs with its deliberate links with Italian neorealism and De Sica/Zavattini's Bicycle Thief, but it was lightened up by my seeing it dubbed in Italian.

I'm not so sure a Palestinian filmmaker can make movies about anything but the plight of the Palestinians, but Elia Suleiman does that with a lot of irony and humor.