Secret Ballot

2001 ‘رأی مخفی’ Directed by Babak Payami

A female election agent and a gun-toting soldier try to collect votes among the local islanders with mixed success.

Nassim Abdi Cyrus Abidi Youssef Habashi Farrokh Shoja Gholbahar Janghali

Alternative Titles

Ra'ye makhfi, Raye makhfi

comedy

123 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by V. Lepistö 🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★½

Most of the Iranian new wave films have always had an ability to sum the essence of Persian art and in best cases the thousands of year old poetic tradition. To me it feels as if Iranian cinema together with Philippine cinema and of course my national Finnish cinema are the ones who have showed me how strongly rooted art is actually in culture. Raised with mostly American cinema, these traits are harder to see because they are showed to us almost as the only artistic truth - that isn't to say that American cinema doesn't have its very own cultural traditions and points through which artists see it but it is rarer to notice this unless we truly broaden…
Review by Laurie Holden ★★★★½

A gentle comedy about the voting process in Iran which sheds light on the gender and class politics that accompany it. The protagonist is a woman, presumably a government official, who travels around a sparsely populated island trying to get the people to vote. She's helped by an soldier in her task -- both comes across various obstacles that they could never have imagined. But the woman tries her best to tell people that this is the only way to make a difference. A wonderful film, both funny and sad, and subtly feminist in nature.
Review by Edith Nelson ★★★★

Chasing Votes
A few years ago, I was going through this lengthy stretch where I'd get movies from the library right around the holiday for which it would be appropriate. Frankenstein right around Halloween; Holiday Inn just before the library closed from snow right around Christmas, the only time that's happened in the years I've been living here. This didn't happen this year; what I got for Halloween from the library was Scrooged. I'm sitting on my review of that until Christmas, though. Still, in the enormous wave of movies beginning with "secret," there was this one, which is appropriate for election day. I own a movie or two that works for it, and there are a few I don't…
Review by Not James Bowman

Secret Ballot (Raye makhfi) is, like nearly every Iranian film I have ever seen, visually mesmerizing. Perhaps Iran itself is like this, people as well as landscape. The film tends to the didactic, perhaps even seeing itself in terms of a vehicle of progress and enlightenment in the Iran of the mullahs. But the writer/director, Babak Payami, is interested not only in the struggle of nascent democratic impulses in an Iran that has been returned, at least in terms of its official culture, to the middle ages, but also in the comic inadequacy of Western ideas of democracy to make much impact on the medieval lives lived by many ordinary Iranians.
Two soldiers guard a coastline on the island of…
Review by Luke Gorham ★★½

2.5 out of 5 (C+)

Recent reviews

Review by David_Bautista ★★★

3.3
Review by Wanderley Caloni

Este filme parece uma propaganda do governo incentivando o voto com não-atores dizendo falas prontas para incitar a reflexão no espectador. Uma pena que o formato seja tão simplório. Sem personagens, sem atores, sem história, O Voto é Secreto consegue no máximo fazer-nos pensar por que está região do mundo está usando democracia.
Review by Not James Bowman

Secret Ballot (Raye makhfi) is, like nearly every Iranian film I have ever seen, visually mesmerizing. Perhaps Iran itself is like this, people as well as landscape. The film tends to the didactic, perhaps even seeing itself in terms of a vehicle of progress and enlightenment in the Iran of the mullahs. But the writer/director, Babak Payami, is interested not only in the struggle of nascent democratic impulses in an Iran that has been returned, at least in terms of its official culture, to the middle ages, but also in the comic inadequacy of Western ideas of democracy to make much impact on the medieval lives lived by many ordinary Iranians.
Two soldiers guard a coastline on the island of…
Review by Letícia ★★★½

It's interesting the way votes are in Irã. The way the army guy show her her when she acts different that what she says to convence peope is really interesting. But I would like to emphasize one quote of the movie:
"She has the age to marriage but she hasn't to vote ?"
This line show so much hypocrisy.
Review by Caio batista ★★★½

O cinema iraniano esta em ascenção e esta é a prova. Enquanto o cinema do irã aumenta a sua perfeição, a perdonagem representando a justiça eleitoral aumenta o seu desejo de um país melhor e para isso é necessário começar pelo voto. Dentro do caminho da agente ela enfrenta todas as dificuldades que a democracia enfrenta para chegar a seu apice, o preconceito, a intolerância religiosa e a ignorância. Um filme que vale muito a pena a ser visto para aqueles que não aguentam mais um cinema de Hollywood
Review by J.C. Emery ★★½

Didn’t even realize this was a comedy. That aspect might have been lost in translation for me. I saw the heart the filmmakers and actors put into the film, and it touched on a powerful and important subject, but it felt bloated and meandered from scenario to scenario. The two main characters built up a good back and forth but that wasn’t enough to hold my interest. This was my first Iranian film and it was interesting as far as getting to see more of the country and the way citizens live outside of the cities and mainland. The film had interesting ideas and a good heart but ultimately left me feeling bored. I probably wouldn’t watch it again but I wouldn’t be completely opposed to giving it another chance in the right situation.
Review by Jason MD-P ★★★

Fantastic acting by the female lead. And yet, imdb doesn't list any other films to her credit. Lots I liked about this, but the message was kinda muddy.
Review by Darshan ★★★★

So minimalistic yet shows a lot.
Review by V. Lepistö 🏳️‍🌈 ★★★★½

Most of the Iranian new wave films have always had an ability to sum the essence of Persian art and in best cases the thousands of year old poetic tradition. To me it feels as if Iranian cinema together with Philippine cinema and of course my national Finnish cinema are the ones who have showed me how strongly rooted art is actually in culture. Raised with mostly American cinema, these traits are harder to see because they are showed to us almost as the only artistic truth - that isn't to say that American cinema doesn't have its very own cultural traditions and points through which artists see it but it is rarer to notice this unless we truly broaden…
Review by Laurie Holden ★★★★½

A gentle comedy about the voting process in Iran which sheds light on the gender and class politics that accompany it. The protagonist is a woman, presumably a government official, who travels around a sparsely populated island trying to get the people to vote. She's helped by an soldier in her task -- both comes across various obstacles that they could never have imagined. But the woman tries her best to tell people that this is the only way to make a difference. A wonderful film, both funny and sad, and subtly feminist in nature.
Review by Edith Nelson ★★★★

Chasing Votes
A few years ago, I was going through this lengthy stretch where I'd get movies from the library right around the holiday for which it would be appropriate. Frankenstein right around Halloween; Holiday Inn just before the library closed from snow right around Christmas, the only time that's happened in the years I've been living here. This didn't happen this year; what I got for Halloween from the library was Scrooged. I'm sitting on my review of that until Christmas, though. Still, in the enormous wave of movies beginning with "secret," there was this one, which is appropriate for election day. I own a movie or two that works for it, and there are a few I don't…
Review by Luke Gorham ★★½

2.5 out of 5 (C+)