The Peddler

The Iranian movie Dastforoush was shown in the U.S. with the title The Peddler (1987). It was written and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

I've seen other films by Makhmalbaf, which I've enjoyed, but I didn't enjoy this one. The first short film is very grim, but at least it made sense. The second and third films varied from strange to bizarre. (However, also very grim.)

In these three movies, there's not one cheerful moment, and not one smile. After 1 and 1/2 hours of this, I found myself depressed. Very discouraging, especially after the effort it took to find the film. (I finally tracked it down on eBay, as a VHS tape, used, and "withdrawn" from a library in Illinois.)

I was surprised that the movie had a not-so-bad IMDb rating of 6.9. I didn't think it was that good, so I gave it a 6.0.

P.S. Note that although several hundred people rated the film, I'm the first person to review it. That, in itself, is strange.