The Traveller

Soccer, children and snippets of Iranian culture. That could describe most Kiarostami films and this one is no different. Despite its rough quality it has many very well done moments especially the final sequence. There's one huge stumbling block for the film, though, and that is the lead actor. The kid is wholly unsympathetic from start to finish, scamming and misbehaving and giving a general sense of childishness and maliciousness rather than innocence. He also can't seem to close his mouth.

kiarostami is my number one iranian director rest in peace

I've never been that impressed with early Kiarostami. His films during that period were a little too straight forward and obvious, and The Traveller is no exception. The gritty neo-realist style is not without its charms, but it's not overly compelling compared to the directors it appears to be influenced by. There are echoes of 400 Blows, but it's not as visual inventive or as emotionally gripping. In the end, it's just a story about a bad kid who gets taught a lesson. It lacks scope.

The beauty, as will ever be the case with Kiarostami, lies in the details, the directness and the indirectness. Three out of the six reviews on this website describe the child protagonist as "unsympathetic": the inability to notice or care about the social context to which the filmmaker is patently drawing attention is remarkable and disappointing. The role of the camera as a means of scamming suckers, and the connection to CLOSE-UP, are also fascinating dimensions of this very fine early work.

Nice movie about a kid that's determined to get enough money to go to a football match in Teheran. The fact that the kid is kind of a swindler and not an innocent sweet child, makes this stand out from the crowd.

71.000

A surprisingly arresting little feature. I suppose part of the film's allure is the internalized Schadenfreude you have in both the naturalistic approach taken to depicting Iran, circa 1974, and a more humanist approach in the story of the child (who is an unsympathetic little prick. But dang, what great acting from a child actor), with a dream sequence and what not. That you end up caring for the kid's scamming and self-centered exploits proves Kiarostami knows what he's doing.

Nice neo-realist story of how important things are to kids, and their determination to see them through. Of course, this one might wind up in jail for all his scheming, but there's a little bit of hope that his plans might actually work. Favorite scenes are him taking the pictures and making wisecracks, and also the bus ride.

Contains a lot of elements you won't find in Kiarostami's later, more formalist films. Non-diegetic music, a more artful, composed approach to cinematography, and even a dream sequence. I liked it quite a bit. Although not very intellectually intriguing, it has an inviting narrative and compelling aesthetic values. It's kind of Satyajit Ray meets The 400 Blows meets neorealism. Qassem is a very unsympathetic protagonist, but the ending suggests that perhaps he might learn a lesson.

Kiarostami's feature debut that established him as an arrow-tip point director of Iranian new-wave movement. It is curious to see how closely he follows the steps laid out by Truffaut in The 400 Blows. Truly, the similar elements of the plot follows down to a different conclusion and it's far echoes of the French masterpiece, but you can see Kiarostami was a promising filmmaker right from the start.

Küçük ve sempatik bir toplum panaroması. Küçük çocuğun kişisel hikayesini anlatırken, bir yandan da taşra-şehir ayrımını küçük harflerle sessizce işliyor. Sonlarındaki havuz sahnesi gerçekten görülmeye değer.