Abbas Kiarostami educates with First Case, Second Case, Tributes to the Teachers and Two Solutions for One Problem (Film review)

Information panel for the Abbas Kiarostami films

I viewed at this year's HKIFF

 

First Case, Second Case (Iran, 1979) + Tributes to the Teachers (Iran, 1977) + Two Solutions for One Problem (Iran, 1975)

- Part of the Hong Kong International Film Festival's Restored Classics program 

- Abbas Kiarostami, director and scriptwriter

 

For some reason that I can't fathom, the people in charge of this program decided to screen the three Abbas Kiarostami offerings that make up it in reverse-chronological order as well as from lengthiest to shortest in terms of their running time.  Because I think it makes more sense the other way around, I'm going to review the films in order of when they were made -- beginning with the 5 minute film made in 1975 that brought to mind a later film that the Iranian filmmaker would make: Where's the Friend's House (1987).  

 

Like that feature length work that I reckon is one of Kiarostami's best, Two Solutions for One Problem's story involves a young boy, a classmate and the classmate's exercise book.  In this short film, the exercise book is torn and two scenarios are presented as to what happens when it gets returned by one boy to its owner.  In just five minutes, Kiarostami manages to infuse quite a bit of humor and also didacticsm into the story.  Truly, if I were to know him from just this one work alone, I'd have already marked him down as quite the cinematic talent!

 

Continuing with the educational theme: The 17-minute-long Tribute to the Teachers is exactly that.  A pretty straightforward documentary which features interviews with various schoolteachers, its primary interest for me was to catch glimpses of what life was like in Iran pre-Islamic Revolution.  Since the bulk of the Iranian films I've viewed were produced after the Iranian Revolution, it was novel for me to see Iranian women with their hair uncovered in public settings and I must admit to also being moved to wonder whether they are able to be as confident, vocal and assertive as they are shown in this 1977 film.  Hopefully, this can be so for contemporary female teachers in Iran.  For in this short offering, some of the personalities who really stood out -- for their charisma as well as devotion to the teaching profession -- were female rather than it just being the men who were dominant.

 

First Case, Second Case is another Kiarostami film with an educational focus.  Like for Two Solutions for One Problem, the director stages two contrasting outcomes for one story: in this instance, involving a teacher irked by the noise being made when he's drawing a diagram on the blackboard who proceeds to kick seven students out of his class and tell them they can only return if he's told who was the troublemaker.  The first scenario involves one student deciding to name the culprit; the second scenario involves all of the students refusing to do so.

 

Unlike the short film, however, the movie doesn't end after the presentation of the alternative scenarios.  Instead, we then see -- much like in Tribute to the Teachers -- a number of different interviewees (women as well as men) giving their opinions on the matter.  In this case, they include the fathers of the seven boys -- who appear to differ quite a bit in class and education levels, and include at least one military man -- but also a range of authority figures, ranging from education ministry officials to religious ones and also involves leaders of various political parties!  And, expectedly, their opinions range pretty widely -- not only regarding what was the right thing for the boys to have done but the reasons why they thought what they did about what the boys should have done, and the teacher too.

 

I have to admit: the "talking heads" part of First Case, Second Case goes on for quite a bit and is visually not all that exciting; so it can be difficult to keep one's attention fully focused on what's going on and even keep one's eyes fully open for a time.  But somewhere along the line, one realizes that far more is going on than just a discussion of classroom discipline -- for the discussion goes so deep philosophically that it also becomes downright political! 

 

More than incidentally, Kiarostami began working on the film when the Shah was still on the throne in Iran. Shooting was nearly complete when the Iranian Revolution occured.  Kiarostami then took the decision to add post-Revolution officials into the mix while retaining his interviews with pre-Revolution officials.  The film was screened at least once in Iran but after the premiere, it disappeared from view for decades until June 2009 when it reappeared and became widely distributed online! 

 

From the story of its production and lack of availability alone, you'd know that First Case, Second Case is one interesting film.  And when you know the context in which he was working, you have to marvel at Kiarostami's daring as well as genius: because what he got out of the mouths of a good number of the people interviewed in the film is dynamite -- specifically, a discussion that addresses key issues to do with revolution (i.e., reasons for rebellion but also attempts to counter it) and society (should one opt for solidarity or betrayal, physical freedom or moral integrity?) itself.                 

 

My ratings for the films: 7 for Two Solutions for One Problem; 7.5 for Tribute to the Teachers; and 8 for First Case, Second Case