Plot

Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?

Blind since childhood, Youssef has a devoted wife, loving daughter, and successful university career, but his affliction fills him with secret torment. As if in answer to his prayers, a clinic restores his sight- a miracle that is double-edged. Although this new world of sight and color floods him with ecstacy- the breathtaking images seen through his reawakened eyes include a dazzling vista of snow-blanketed hills, a shower of molten gold sparks in a jewlery foundry, an array of lollipop lights behind a rain-speckled car window- it also plunges him into a labyrinth of confusion and temptations. A pretty student begins to enclipse his previously invisible wife; he silently watches a subway pickpoket, who fixes him with a look of withering complicity. Eager to claim the lost life he feels he is owed but unable to take the next step, Youssef is inflamed with possibility and paralyzed with egoism. A resonant metaphor for life's second chances and a powerful parable of sigh and insight, The Willow Tree's vivid imagery and emotional immediacy makes this Majid Majidi's most mature and ambitious film to date.—Arya

What if a man blind since birth was suddenly given the gift of sight? This is the central premise of this beautiful, gripping drama from Majid Majidi. When the middle aged Youssef, a blind university professor, is given the chance to undergo major eye surgery in France, he finds his prayers answered. Leaving behind his loving wife and daughter, he finds a new lease of life in his new visual world. However, will he lose sight of what is important? A hauntingly beautiful, poignant piece of work.—IMVBox.com