Man, Taraneh, panzdah sal daram

I have seen a handful of movies from around Asia at this year's Seattle International Film Festival. All of them have had good productions values but most of the acting has, well, looked like acting. Not in "I, Taraneh, Am Fifteen Years Old". The all-around professionalism of this film is impressive.

Briefly, Taraneh, is a fifteen-year-old Iranian girl who lives with her feeble grandmother. Her mother has passed and her father is in prison for unspecified reasons. Taraneh works at a photo shop where she discovers the young man who works next door has taken an interest in her. After some convincing, she agrees to marry him. It turns out to be a very brief marriage. After the divorce Taraneh makes another discovery: she is pregnant.

This movie created tension for me on two levels. One was how the character Taraneh would be able carry and then raise a child all by herself in modern Iranian society. Two was how a movie with this kind of subject matter could be made in modern Iranian society.

I have been won over by Iranian cinema. Special kudos go to Taraneh for her portrayal of a girl who with stoic determination becomes a mother.