As the movie begins, Mr Hekmati is clumsily completing the move of his personal belongings (which include absurdly large family photos) to his new modest quarters. He is a schoolteacher and has been assigned to the local school. He looks like an intellectual out of a Godard movie including thick frame carey glasses. He sticks out in the town like a sore thumb and arouses the curiosity of his new neighbors.
For the rest of the movie we are witnesses to his uneasy interaction with his neighbors and with the principal and colleagues at school. They (as Mr Hekmati) are not sure about the reasons for his transfer. His students are unruly at the beginning but mutual confidence develops after a while. He becomes involved with Atieh, the sister of one of his pupils. Atieh struggles to care for her old and ailing mother and insure an education for her brother. To complicate things, she suffers the attentions of a local tough, a big man in town.
This is one of the movies that started the torrent that made Iran a powerhouse of world cinema. However, it has little to do with the subjects and feelings in the works of later directors like Kiarostami, Panahi or Makhmalbaf. Downpour evokes various genres such as American romantic comedies (with a touch of screwball), Italian neorealist movies but especially the quirky output of the Czechoslovak New Wave.
This work had a troubled history. The negative and all copies were seized in 1979 by state authorities and never heard of again, probably destroyed or lost in some obscure archive. Fortunately, the director kept a positive and the copy we stream is an excellent restoration by the World Cinema Project of Martin Scorses's The Film Foundation.
It is difficult to find fault with this film. Script (by the director) is witty and acting and cinematography are excellent . Perhaps the subject matter is not enough to justify a length of more than two hours.
