Tiny Snowflakes

Colour, 35 mm
Iran, 2003, 75 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Two men who guard a local mine live a life of sad and desperate loneliness in a dilapidated house somewhere in the wilderness. In order to survive under these extreme conditions they must create a world of their own made up of seemingly insignificant details which for them play a very important role. A stray dog, the radio, a lady’s shoe, and the silhouette of an unknown woman who appears from time to time walking on the horizon: these allow them, for at least a short while, to leave behind their heavy isolation, awakening their imaginations and giving them a reason to carry on. Sometimes a man on a motorcycle or a group of miners find their way into the men’s world, but they disappear as quickly as they come. Nothing else in this godforsaken place ever changes. Yet the two guards, absorbed in their own reality, find joy in the simplest things. The beauty, for example, that is revealed in snowflakes floating quietly to the ground...

About the director

Ali-Reza Amini (b. 1970, Teheran) studied stage direction. He had a stint as an actor and then began making shorts and documentaries, of which he has roughly twenty to his name (e.g. The Gift, The Case, The Green Frame, Dark Angle, The Letter, The Desert); these screened at various festivals (Locarno, Pusan, Thessaloniki), several winning awards. As assistant director he worked on the films Living in the Mist and Time of Drunken Horses. In 2002 he made his directing debut, Letters in the Wind, describing the life of soldiers on the Iranian border. His second feature Tiny Snowflakes received a Special Mention at Locarno IFF 2003.