If I had to describe Iranian producer / writer / director Mohammad Rasoulof’s The White Meadow, I would have to say it was a parable. I would also have to say it’s a masterpiece.

We meet Rhamat, a sailor without wind who rows his way through a circuit of desert islands to collect the tears of the inhabitants. Each island has a particular reason for sorrow, but all are happy to unburden themselves by having their tears taken away. Everyone he comes in contact with knows Rhamat; you get the feeling that he’s been around forever. They’re happy to see him, and he somehow gives them comfort.

Life for those on the island is getting worse. Not suddenly, but slowly.…

"Tears should be treated with respect. They're valuable. Not a single drop can be wasted."

KEREN BANGET ANJIR
Film pertama Rasoulof yang aku tonton dan suka banget. Auto masuk fav!!
Nonton ini bikin aku nyesel juga karena ga sempat nonton film Rasoulof terbaru there is no evil di festival kemaren 😭

Nonton film ini tuh sambil bertanya tanya, film yang kutonton nyata ga sih? Karena film ini terasa seperti mimpi tapi mimpi yang nyata. Aku masih ga percaya apa yang aku tonton disini. Di sisi lain aku peka sama sindiran yang disuarakan. Sindiran ini nyata dan aku bisa ngerasain itu. Sindiran yang tidak hanya terkhusus ke pemerintahan Iran tapi juga sindiran terhadap manusia secara universal.

Menonton ini seakan ikut di…

The White Meadows, a beautiful, quiet, fable-like film is as gorgeous as it is mesmerizing. We are taken to various salt-covered islands where the inhabitants live out age-old traditions, both beautiful and calamitous, in the hopes of finding peace, in the hopes of appeasing God. The protagonist goes to the various islands to collect the tears of its inhabitants as they cry during a funeral, a 'marriage' and a sacrifice to gods. We don't know why he collects the tears, although the inhabitants use them for different purposes. There is a beautiful symmetry to the power of the tears and inundation of salt on their land. Are they so covered in salt because God has cried too much lately over…

At first glance it doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that there's something seriously wrong with the islanders belief system, practices and society as a whole! Or for that matter that the society in question is in fact Iran!

The film is also rich with symbolism throughout targeting the many ills of Iran! It could be said director Mohammad Rasoulof is living dangerously when his artistic expression gives the powers that be a proverbial black eye! Freedom of artistic expression in Iran isn't a reality.. at this point in time it's nothing more than a pipedream! Which goes a long way towards explaining why director Mohammad Rasoulof and fellow filmmaker Jafar Panahi were imprisoned for the charges…

The White Meadows by Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, is a poetic parable about religious extremism set on the many unforgiving islands of Lake Urmia. The lake, and the salty outcrops that rise from its saline waters, are home to small, insular communities consumed by absurdist customs and blind conformity. The solemn Rahmat, a quiet and dignified old man, rows his boat between the island communities collecting the tears of the villagers in a small flask and absolving them of their collective grief and sorrow.

The film follows Rahmat’s visitations to these disparate islands, each with their unique traditions and ceremonies, whilst picking up stray travelers along the way. As he winds his way through these mournful communities he witnesses numerous…

Under charges of film-related activities and “propagandizing against the regime”, the director Mohammad Rasoulof, along with the editor Jafar Panahi, who is one of the most important names in the Iranian New Wave movement in cinema, were sentenced to six years in prison in December 2010 because of this tremendous piece of allegorical poetry.

The White Meadows functions both as a symbolic essay of the human condition looked through a folkloric lens of Islamic religious extremisms, and a criticism to a significantly condemned fundamentalist regime, particularly by what is known as the "Second Wave" of the Iranian cinematic movement. As a man travels to several islands, collecting the tears of people, he witnesses a superb variety of tragedies and forms…

Emotion begets emotion. It all builds up, one reaction making the next stronger and stronger until either you break into a catharsis or you are compelled to act (or both). This is why the images are important (one of the reasons why): they are, when the film opens with the close up of a bowl, the first thing we have to react to. From then on, they mingle with sound (calm and quiet, but present) and narrative to guide us through the emotional journey. What the first image does is, by remaining in close, build curiosity, and, by capturing it in detailed clarity, evoke wonder.

As the story, which is a folktale and therefore sometimes slightly mystic, unfolds, the images…

“What colour is the sea? It’s blue.”

Mohammad Rasoulof's The White Meadow's is like a rare treat, a delicacy to be savoured and treasured, but I must help spread the word as it deserves to be seen by anyone with the slightest interest in challenging, poetic and allegorical cinema. Even words are hard to find so early after having experienced it, and I feel a second viewing will be in order very soon to tap into its deeper complexities. What I will say for now is that it's a film of exquisite, haunting beauty both visually and sonically, and the incredible salt encrusted island setting is like something out of a fantasy. Rahmat (or Iranian Forest Whitaker) is a tear collector…

Incredible is an appropriate initial description of this film by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof (one of the men imprisoned due to censorship laws alongside Jafar Panahi). The White Meadows serves as an allegory for the Islamic religious extremism in Iran and other Islamic govern states in the middle east. An allegory depicting the harshness and often unrelenting nonsense of the sharia law but it does so in the most quieting of objectification. Rasoulof creates a nearly mystical atmosphere with his circuit of islands and their inhabitants which seem uninhabitable to man but that also lends to the fantastical and surreal portrayal of these islander's lives.

Somehow Rasoulof films their society with the utmost care and sincerity making it as realistic…

فيلم ( The White Meadows )

يالله يالنهاية !!! 😩 مررررررررره ماتوقعتها بالقوة ذي ! الجهل هو العدو الاعظم للأنسان , كمية الرمزيات بالفيلم مو طبيعية .. تجارة الحزن ممكن اشوفه الاقرب لـ وصف الصورة بشكل سطحي بحت .. حتى مع نهاية الفيلم مو كل شيء واضح ابداً لا المخرج تركك في حيرة بالنهاية , طيب وبعدين ؟
مشهد النهاية بالاول صادم و بعدها بكم دقيقة تمتص الصدمة بصدمة اخرى تعيد بها السيناريو , قارب و تجديف و بحر في عمقه انسان سرق الدموع وغرق فيها حرفيًا و مازال يطفو عليها الشيطان الاكبر ..
هل العجوز هو الدولة ؟ وهل الشاب هو الثائر و هل الانثى التي ترفض الزواج هي الحقوق وهل البئر هو الخلاص الكاذب و اخيراً هل هو…

"Tears should be treated with respect. They're valuable. Not a single drop can be wasted."

KEREN BANGET ANJIR
Film pertama Rasoulof yang aku tonton dan suka banget. Auto masuk fav!!
Nonton ini bikin aku nyesel juga karena ga sempat nonton film Rasoulof terbaru there is no evil di festival kemaren 😭

Nonton film ini tuh sambil bertanya tanya, film yang kutonton nyata ga sih? Karena film ini terasa seperti mimpi tapi mimpi yang nyata. Aku masih ga percaya apa yang aku tonton disini. Di sisi lain aku peka sama sindiran yang disuarakan. Sindiran ini nyata dan aku bisa ngerasain itu. Sindiran yang tidak hanya terkhusus ke pemerintahan Iran tapi juga sindiran terhadap manusia secara universal.

Menonton ini seakan ikut di…

For starters, this is criminally under-seen and that needs to be amended—immediately. Wow, what a film.

SPOILERS (seriously, do not ruin this for yourself, watchlist it):

This is composed of so many tiny acts of faith, the strongest of which are those that buck the notions of faith itself. From a blind man reaching into darkness for a shoe at the shore, to the countless victims who suffer at the hands of brute fundamentalism, The White Meadows is a poetic film ripe with metaphor. It frees you, only to draw you back into its tales of iniquity with baited breath.

Just the premise of it’s central character, Rahmat—a man who gathers the tears and sorrows of his people—is one that…

after watching Rasoulof new film "There's no Evil", I revisited some of his previous works. The White Meadows is another compelling and dream like film from Rasoulof. It is the allegory of human misery. When I started watching the film, I couldn't connect to it instantly and found it little boring. But in the midpoint, everything started to make sense and reconnect me back from the beginning.

It makes me think once again about human suffering. Yes as human beings, we naturally want happiness, hope and joy. at the same time, we know death is inevitable. so we create all kind of stuff like hope and religion among us to give meaningful life. we can't bear suffering, so we do…