Djomeh review
Review:
Taking a cue from his mentor Abbas Kiarostami, Hassan Yektapanah sets his tale of a lovelorn Afghan immigrant farm worker against the backdrop of beautifully composed landscapes and develops it with great care through the daily activities and interactions of its characters. It's a film, primarily, of conversations. Djomeh (Jalil Nazari), like any stricken young lover, talks constantly about his desire for the shopgirl to anyone who happens to be around. On long drives to sell milk in the local village, he gets advice from his sympathetic boss. Back at the farm, his fellow immigrant and roommate constantly berates him for not paying attention to his work. The motifs of landscapes and deceptively simple conversations that, more often than not, touch upon eternal questions of human behavior make Djomeh look and feel like a Kiarostami film, but somehow it avoids becoming derivative. Caught in a culturally specific dilemma brought on by a timeless youthful longing, Djomeh is an original and achingly sympathetic character. The film's ambiguous ending, which occurs after his boss finally agrees to press the question to the shopgirl's father, leaves the door open for multiple, equally intriguing interpretations. by Tom Vick, All Movie Guide
