Badkonake sefid (Der weiße Ballon)

Jafar Panahi's first feature film, following a series of shorter works and assistant directing roles with Abbas Kiarostami, among others, is the real-time story of a seven-year-old girl and her older brother on the streets of Tehran. An hour and a half before the Iranian New Year celebrations, the girl is on her way to buy a goldfish for the occasion. On the way to the store, she repeatedly loses the money for the purchase and has to use all her powers of persuasion. The minimal plot is transformed into a comical quasi-thriller by means of precisely drawn characters and a carefully constructed narrative, which casually and artfully stretches and condenses space and time to tell of the necessary, shrewd self-confidence of a child in dealing with the adult world. (C.H.)