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In a final bid to secure a fat, multi-finned fish, Razieh tries to enlist her brother Ali (Mohsen Kafili) by offering him a deflated balloon. Burdened with the numerous tasks pressed upon him, Ali is not overly impressed; it takes a raising of the stakes to buy his assistance. Then, by spreading on thick layers of emotional blackmail, Razieh persuades her mother that it might be best if she got her way. Soon Razieh clutches her mother's last 500-toman note in her eager fist and races towards the market with her fishbowl. There are many dangers and distractions along the way but Razieh is single-minded, at least until she encounters the snake charmers (Hasan Neamatolahi and Bosnali Bahary). Since she's already been warned off mixing with the dervishes, Razieh is compelled to investigate.
Squeezing through the all-male crowd, Razieh finds herself confronted by several boxes of snakes and the smooth-talking dervish. Taking advantage of her fear, he whisks away the bank note and claims it as a donation. Amazingly though, Razieh has the guts to ask for it back, perhaps because she's more afraid of her mother than some old snake. The performers take pity on her, particularly when tears well up, and return the money with only a little trauma. As the 500-toman note is once again secure, Razieh rushes to the pet-shop and selects a particularly plump fish. When it come to pay the Manager (Asghar Barzegar), however, her money is nowhere to be seen. Instantly distressed, Razieh is led away on a fruitless search by a kindly old lady (Anna Borkowska).
The strengths of The White Balloon are simple ones and, yet, no less for that. Related in real-time, the perspective is always that of a child; thus the desire for a goldfish outweighs every other concern, adults are generally people to be wary of and the pacing is relaxed. Even better, the actors act like real children, rather than how adults think kids behave, and surprise us with their unselfconscious yet bluntly manipulative actions. Jafar Panahi, the director, manages to elicit terrific performances from his young charges but this is not his greatest triumph. It is his ability to construct an absorbing and believable film about children, without becoming condescending or phoney, which stands out. Working with the barest of storylines (written by Abbas Kiarostami) he allows the audience to focus fully on Razieh, instead of trying to follow the twists and turns of a convoluted script.
Central to The White Balloon are the incredibly natural, knowingly crude performances of Razieh and Ali. While Mohammadkhani doesn't have a particularly wide emotional range, she does have burning intelligence, brutal honesty and determination. Thus whether her features are screwed up in petulance or beaming with happiness, she never behaves out of character. Instead emotional squalls pass like summer rain, intense but short-lived, and Mohammadkhani remains appealing. As her protective older brother Kafili is surprisingly subtle, acting largely as a buffer between Razieh and the strangers around them. Elsewhere the most sympathetic character is a young Afghan balloon-seller (Aliasghar Smadi), enlisted by Ali but ultimately abandoned. Truly a stranger in Tehran, he shares the New Year with a single unsold balloon.
To those with a deeper understanding of Iranian society, no doubt The White Balloon contains perceptive asides. Fortunately for those without access to such insight, at a purely superficial level there is much to enjoy. While some of the social aspects are a little uncomfortable - the men work and gather in disreputable groups while the women wear chadors and look after children - this appears to be nothing more than a straightforward impression of how Iran is today. Of course the advantage of a child's point of view is that they see the world around them in primary colours, allowing Panahi to get away with comments that might have been censored with older actors. Ultimately The White Balloon depends upon Mohammadkhani and it is her role that defines the movie; honest, simple, touching and wryly amusing.
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