WOW FILM FESTIVAL: BELOVED | REVIEW
Dir: Yaser Talebi (2018, 54 mins)
If anyone personifies the adage that the simple things in life are the best, it’s Firouzeh Khorshidi, an octogenarian herder and dairy producer in northern Iran. For she is the embodiment of being satisfied with what she has – being with her cows and earning a living, having nothing that she doesn’t need. Director Yaser Talebi and producer Elaheh Nobakht have made a documentary of this fiercely independent and strong-willed woman who is maintaining life on her terms.
Filmed over a period of two years, Talebi captures Firouzeh as she goes about her daily routine: milking, churning the milk to make butter, yoghurt and other products that she eats, sells and barters, picking berries, collecting and chopping firewood and more. She climbs trees, scales fences and goes up the mountain every spring, like she’s done for the past 60 years. How does she do things that people half her age couldn’t keep up with? Guesses are good genes, determination and strong bones – most likely from all that milk.
In autumn, Firouzeh – nimble as a goat, albeit with a walking stick – takes the dozens of cows down to the village below, where she was born. None of them want to be there, but it’s a necessity for colder months. Married off at 14 to a 30-year-old, she went on to have 11 children, most who can’t find the time to visit; a widow for 10 years, she manages without a phone (borrowing a friend’s for an unsuccessful attempt to get her sons and daughters to visit), electricity or gas. As with the forestry officials who come to make sure she sticks to grazing times, Firouzeh alternates between berating her kids and showing kindness.
Everyone wants her to retire and take it easy, but she insists, “I can’t live the way they want me to live,” claiming her cows understand her more than any human. The remaining minutes, where Firouzeh takes control of the camera with such a profound and impelling plea, will leave you shattered.
Talebi, Beloved’s director of photography, showcases the Alboraz mountains and the valley in all their glory: taking us through seasons, capturing white and brown cows beside the rockface, from the autumnal landscape to snow-capped peaks, Firouzeh disappearing into the mist, and her beautiful weathered face and worn hands. Misagh Modanloo and Hossein Abolsedgh, respectively sound recordist and sound designer, add birdsong and screeches, cowbells clanging and a village woman’s expressive singing against what could be Persian flute and a type of bagpipe. Beloved is a heartfelt, carefully crafted portrait of a woman who shows love not only for family and humankind but for her constant and closest companions – nature and her treasured cows.
Available to watch as part of the Wales One World Film Festival; final screening day was Sun 21 Mar (ticket holders are granted viewing privileges until Tue 23 Mar if they clicked ‘Watch Now’ in time). Info and streaming for a Q&A with Beloved producer Elaheh Nobakht is here.
words RHONDA LEE REALI