Berlinale Competition: About the Iranian drama Ghasideyeh gave sefid (Ballad of a White Cow)

Mina’s life turns upside down when she learns that her hus­band Babak has been wrong­ly charged with the crime for which he was exe­cut­ed. The bureau­cra­cy apol­o­gizes for the mis­car­riage of jus­tice and holds out the prospect of finan­cial com­pen­sa­tion. „So a mis­take has been made and we are very sor­ry about it. Of course, noth­ing can replace your hus­band, but it was, after all, God’s will, ” the offi­cer told Mina.

As an act of self-respect and for the sake of her deaf daugh­ter, Mina takes up the qui­et fight against an appa­ra­tus marked by cyn­i­cism. Her envi­ron­ment is not par­tic­u­lar­ly help­ful: “Guilty or inno­cent, the poor man is gone. You have to be strong. You’re all she has”, Mina receives as advice. She should­n’t feel like that, after all, her daugh­ter needs her urgent­ly.

And Babak was very impor­tant to his daugh­ter. He brought her clos­er to the world of film. For her, the cin­e­ma is a place of joy; only there is she hap­py. She would love to watch movies all day. Her father had named her „Bita” after the main char­ac­ter in the 1972 Iran­ian dra­ma of the same name by Hajir Dar­iush.

Just as mon­ey is run­ning out, a stranger named Reza sud­den­ly appears at Mina’s door. He says he was a friend of Babak. He claims to have had debts to Babak, which he now wants to pay off. Mina reacts cau­tious­ly at first, but final­ly she lets Reza into her life. The pres­ence of Reza is also good for Mina’s daugh­ter, she blos­soms a lit­tle. Lit­tle does Mina know that a secret binds the two of them togeth­er.

After Diplo­ma­cie Shekast­na­pazire Aghaye Naderi (The Invin­ci­ble Diplo­ma­cy of Mr Naderi), Bal­lad of a white Cow is the sec­ond film that Behtash Sanaee­ha and Maryam Moghad­dam have direct­ed togeth­er. Maryam Moghad­dam also starred in Sanaeeha’s debut film Ehtemale Barane Aci­di (Risk of Acid Rain). In the cur­rent film, she also plays the lead­ing role – and car­ries the film with her pres­ence.

The basic con­stel­la­tion of the film is depress­ing, the sto­ry is told in a deeply con­vinc­ing man­ner. The two direc­tors have suc­ceed­ed in cre­at­ing a deeply touch­ing, poignant work. Amin Jafari’s cam­era stays on the faces of the wid­ow and the broth­er of the exe­cut­ed man for a long time when they learn what hap­pened. This is per­haps one of the most mem­o­rable scenes of this Berli­nale.

Behtash Sanaee­ha
The Iran­ian film­mak­er and pro­duc­er was born in Shi­ras. After study­ing civ­il engi­neer­ing, he began writ­ing scripts and direct­ing short films, doc­u­men­taries, com­mer­cials and car­toons for tele­vi­sion. His first fea­ture film Risk of Acid Rain dealt with the prob­lems of the Iran­ian mid­dle class and was shown at over 30 inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals. Togeth­er with Maryam Moghad­dam he made the doc­u­men­tary The Invin­ci­ble Diplo­ma­cy of Mr Naderi about an eccen­tric Iran­ian who wants to rec­on­cile his home­land with the USA. In 2018 he was a mem­ber of the jury for the Ing­mar Bergman Award in Swe­den.

2015 Ehtemale Barane Aci­di (Risk of Acid Rain)
2017 Diplo­ma­cie Shekast­na­pazire Aghaye Naderi (The Invin­ci­ble Diplo­ma­cy of Mr Naderi); Co-direc­tor: Maryam Moghad­dam
2020 Ghasideyeh Gave Sefid (Bal­lad of a White Cow); Co-direc­tor: Maryam Moghad­dam

Maryam Moghad­dam
The actress, screen­writer and direc­tor was born in Tehran. After grad­u­at­ing from the Per­form­ing Arts School in Gothen­burg, she worked as an actress in var­i­ous the­aters in Swe­den, includ­ing the Stad­steater in Gothen­burg. The Iran­ian films she starred in include Closed Cur­tain by Jafar Panahi and Kam­buzia Par­to­vis, which pre­miered at the Berli­nale and won the Sil­ver Bear. She wrote the script for Risk of Acid Rain with Behtash Sanaee­ha. They co-direct­ed The Invin­ci­ble Diplo­ma­cy of Mr Naderi.

2017 Diplo­ma­cie Shekast­na­pazire Aghaye Naderi (The Invin­ci­ble Diplo­ma­cy of Mr Naderi); Co-direc­tor: Behtash Sanaee­ha
2020 Ghasideyeh Gave Sefid (Bal­lad of a White Cow); Co-direc­tor: Behtash Sanaee­ha

By Behtash Sanaee­ha, Maryam Moghad­dam
with Maryam Moghad­dam, Alireza San­i­far, Pourya Rahimisam, Avin Purraoufi, Farid Ghoba­di
Iran / France 2020
Far­si, 105 min­utes

TRIVIA

BITA (1972), the film that gave Babak’s deaf daugh­ter her name, was Hajir Dariush’s only com­mer­cial­ly suc­cess­ful film. Dar­iush was born in Ban­dar Pahlavi in Iran in 1938. Before he made BITA, he shot a few short films. He was the pres­i­dent of the Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val of Iran in 1966 and he emi­grat­ed to France in 1979. He died in 1995.