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Blind Minor 
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DIRECTOR |
Samira
Makmalbaf
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NOTES |
In Tehran 12
year old twin girls are kept prisoners in their |
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home (since
birth) by their father. They are allowed no |
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contact with
the outside world. Their mother is blind, and |
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virtually a
prisoner herself. |
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Amazingly
this is a true story and the father and the girls are |
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played by
themselves. The director was only 17 at the time. |
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Neighbours
alert social services and the girls are taken away. |
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They have
their hair cut and are washed thoroughly (at home |
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this has
been neglected). But then they are returned to their |
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parents and
locked up again. The father explains that their |
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mother being
blind cannot protect the girls from the attention |
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of boys. And
such attention would bring on him dishonour. |
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Following
another visit from the social worker the girls are |
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released and
enjoy some freedom and meeting other girls |
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even though
they have difficulty speaking. |
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Meanwhile
the father is locked in his own house and given a |
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The film is
unusual and charming but I felt we did not learn |
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enough
(either through empathy with the characters or |
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dialogue)
about how this bizarre situation arose. |
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The blind
mother is a minor role and we never see her face |
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Notes
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