Gabbeh - 1996
Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
A mysterious woman suddenly appears out of the prized carpet of an elderly couple and recounts her tragic tale. This surreal tale is filled with colorful imagery and a masterful blend of reality and fantasy.
Color, 1 hour 15 minutes, Farsi
Watch Trailer (English), Watch Scene (Farsi w/English subtitles)
Star Rating
Firouzan Rank # 50
Cast
| Abbas Sayahi | Uncle |
| Shaghayegh Djodat | Gabbeh |
| Hossein Moharami | Old Man |
| Roghieh Moharami | Old Woman |
| Parvaneh Ghalandari |
Crew
| Writer | Mohsen Makhmalbaf |
| Director | Mohsen Makhmalbaf |
| Producer | Khalil Daroudchi Khalil Mahmoudi |
| Director of Photography | Mahmoud Kalari |
| Sound Recordist | Mojtaba Mirtahmasebi |
| Editor | Mohsen Makhmalbaf |
| Sound Mixer | Abbas Rastegarpour Behrouz Shahamat |
| Music | Hossein Ali Zadeh |
Pictures
The mysterious woman materializes from the carpet.
A familiar shot (to those who have seen The School That Was Blown Away) featuring a remote school and an unexpected visitor.
A lesson in color - the Blue of the sky.
Capturing Blue.
The Yellow of the sun.
Blue and Yellow, and the resulting Green.
Looking on to her distant love.
A sudden rainstorm.
The lone rider.
The old woman and her carpet.
DVD
External Reviews
By Lawrence Van Gelder The New York Times
From an isolated hut not far from a burbling brook, an elderly man and woman emerge, bickering in the familiar way of the long married about which of them is to wash their beloved gabbeh.
A gabbeh is a Persian carpet woven with bright wools in patterns that relate a story. And in "Gabbeh," to be shown at Alice Tully Hall tonight at 6 and on Saturday at 11:30 A.M. in the New York Film Festival, the Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf weaves a languid, lyric tale. Continued
By Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid
Mohsen Makhmalbaf's beautiful, colorful film was probably the first Iranian film to be released in the U.S., or at least it's the first one I ever saw. The film follows the nomadic Ghashghai people, whose bright, bold carpets tell stories. The main yarn features a young woman who loves a mysterious stranger, but is forbidden to marry him. Makhmalbaf attempts to follow the carpet idea by making his film dreamily romantic and non-realistic. Events seem to leap around in time and space, much like a dream. "Gabbeh" is a deceptive introduction to Makhmalbaf's work, however, which tends to be far more brutally realistic.
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