Color of Paradise. County : Iran Language : Persian Director : Majid Majidi This is a story about the blind boy Mohammad(Mohsen Ramezani). The film starts in a school for the blind where the children are getting ready to pick up by their parents for summer vacation. Mohammad’s father(Hossein Mahjoub) doesn’t turn up in time , so he waits in the veranda. He hears the sound of a bird , while turning his attention away from that he hears the sound of a cat and realizes the bird had fallen from the nest. He then chases away the cat and search for the bird , then puts back the bird in the nest by climbing in the tree and double checks its in the right nest by feeling the other bird with his hand. After a while his father finally comes and asks the school authority to keep him during the summer vacation as he doesn’t have anyone to look after Mohammad , they refuses by saying that they are not running the home or charity for the blind. Without any option left he took his son to their village which is situated in a hill station . He transports first by bus and then by horse and reach there which is a paradise. Mohammad was greeted by his sisters and then by his Grandma(Salameh Feyzi) who are so affectionate to him. Mohammad’s father is a widower who plans to get marry again , goes and look her fiancée which is the only romantic scene , he assures the bride’s father he will marry her soon. The night Mohammad’s father reveals his plan to Grandma that he is going to send Mohammad to get trained under a blind carpenter to get a living on his own. Grandma doesn’t like the idea. Next day Mohammad wants to go to school along with their sisters and his Grandma gets the permission from the school authority and they accept him as their guest. In the classroom he observes a student reads the same lesson which is in his book and he corrects the mistakes by checking his book . Then he asks permission to read the lesson by himself and to the bewilderment of the teacher he reads the lesson perfectly which is in Braille. The Father then next day without knowing the Grandma took Mohammad amid his protest to the blind carpenter. The carpenter teaches him the basics of carpenting , where Mohammad tells the carpenter in frustration that nobody loves him. When Grandma learns Mohammad went away she fell ill and in few days she dies. The marriage of the father also gets broke as bride’s father send a message to him that the death symbols the evil. After these incidents , the Father goes to Blind Carpenter’s house to bring Mohammad back. While bringing him back , on the way , we are not clear about the Father’s intentions , anyhow while crossing the bridge in the horse the bridge gets broke and Mohammad who is riding the horse ,along with horse ,fell into the wild river they are crossing. At first the Father was reluctant and hesitant to save Mohammad , then after getting the glimpse of Mohammad’s shoes he jumps into river to catch Mohammad. He couldn’t able to save Mohammad , but was washed to the shore of the sea where the river joined. After getting consciousness he saw Mohammad who was lying in distance also washed to shore. Initially Mohammad is motionless and after hearing the wood pecker’s sound , his fingers will move a little bit . The film ends right there . I’m most astonished by the simple yet powerful screenplay . The acting by Mohammad is brilliant , I’m still couldn’t able to determine whether he is real blind or just acted that way. The smile when he puts back the bird into the nest is still fresh in my memory. Same way the Father and Grandma had done equally good supporting role. The sister’s are the most beautiful children we ever came across. The younger one is so pretty , I longed for more screen presence for her. The cinematography and Music are other two aspects which makes the film more powerful. The landscape , trees , forest , flowers , river , agriculture field , everything that are showed in the hill station , you never imagined that kind of beauty in Iran. Music which mostly contains nature’s sound justifies the film is made with more sincerity and dedication , thinking in the angle how sound is lifeline to blind people. I couldn’t understand the Father’s line of thinking when Mohammad get drowned and once Mohammad in pursue of birds sound goes into forest where we hear the sound of some wild animal also. It looks like the Father wants his son’s death and also , he is confused to come to any decision. The film shows how the people in that part are self reliant and we can now know why Iranian rugs are world famous. Over all I’m most impressed with simple and straight forward way of story telling which doesn’t has any twists and turns . The way it brings the Fathers’ love for Mohammad as the time goes. The way it shows the feelings of Mohammad and you can equally feel how Mohammad felt is the greatest success of this film.