Ten (2002)

Very boring the whole movie is spent in car with the mother talking to her son and daughter

Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami parks his digital video camera on the dashboard of a car so you can either see the driver or the passenger but not both. Ten short trips (totaling 90 minutes) then take us on a journey (by conversation) through a woman's relationships with her family and her society. Much social commentary and a very direct cinema experience (although some dialogue does feel scripted).

Kiarastomi is a true artist.

Given the way cars dominate the lives of Tehrani's it is fitting that we glimpse the lives of a group of local women from the front seat of a moving vehicle. The conversations are as ordinary as the scenery passes by. And yet it is a gentle insight into other lives and a reminder that we are all driven (!?) by the same hopes and fears. When one of the women removes her veil at one point it is a surprisingly confronting reminder of how intimate we have become with these characters.

This is the second time we have attempted to watch a movie by this director. He was rated highly, but we find him impossibly tedious and impossible to watch

Dull. (A pretend documentary)

Wasn't overly rapt in this like the other reviews above, however, found this an interesting way to convey thoughts, views from a women's perspective which is so different to western ways. The young boy in this really annoyed me - the utter disrespect for his mother was disgusting.

I really enjoyed this movie. Maybe it should be required viewing for anyone with a bad attack of xenophobia because it presents people living in an Iranian Islamic culture as ordinary people with problems and concerns just like our own.

From such simple, even minimal materials, Kiarastomi has created something fascinating.