Cyclist is a strong movie, and similar to other early works of Makhmalbaf, intertwines several social messages: justice, exploitation of the poor, con men who try to turn every opportunity into gold, and complete disconnection of the rich and the powerful from the world of lower classes. Other reviewers have commented at length about the social justice aspects of this movie. But it seems what most people miss about this movie is that it is, above all, a love story.
Nasim, a former cyclist champion in Afghanistan is now working as a laborer in Iran. His wife is in hospital, and Nasim desperately needs money for her treatment. For that, he agrees to participate in a betting show in which Nasim would have to ride his bicycle for seven days and nights without sleeping.
It is interesting that Nasim as the protagonist, does not have any dialog in the movie. He only speaks with his face, and nothing in the movie is stronger than the pain and love on his face when he is looking at or thinking of his bed-stricken wife. This is the ultimate love story in which the knight goes to absolute extremes to save the woman he loves from death. How many of us can claim to have gone to such lengths for our loved ones?
At the same time, Makhmalbaf also develops a side story of an innocent love starting to take root: the young boy who accompanies Nasim falls in love with the young daughter of a gypsy. Ultimately they are forced to part ways without sharing anything more than an apple, but the strength of those scenes are significant. In this movie Makhmalbaf showed that his true talent was in depiction of love, not social justice announcements.
Nonetheless, given that this was Revolutionary Iran in 80s the social justice aspects of the movie remains strong, and eventually repetitive. In his early movies Makhmalbaf often fell into the habit of repeating his message too many times and too obviously, perhaps to win favors from revolutionary officials. However if we can put aside the social lens and watch the Cyclist as a love story, we may find it a truly emotional and influential movie.
