DOKHTARI BA KAFSH-HAYE-KATANI
(THE GIRL IN THE SNEAKERS)
1999

Bay Area Premiere
February 28, 2001

Cinequest San Jose Film Festival

Two teenagers are arrested, yes arrested, for talking together in a park. Welcome to Iran. The traditional first credit on screen, 'praise be to God', is extremely fitting in this morality play on obeying your parents. A cute 15-year-old loves a less well-to-do young man. When arrested, her parents are outraged and afraid that they've had sex. A state-sponsored medical exam proves that they have not. She is grounded and banned from contacting the boy again. Her mother tries to explain, but no explanation is good enough for the girl who plays hookey from school and constantly calls her beloved. Her trusting nature with men has her narrowly escaping several tough situations. Every guy she comes into contact with is a jerk and after her womanhood.

The actress with her huge eyes and easy smile is so charismatic that we don’t mind watching her walk around the city for hours at a time.

Interesting Muslim filmmaking side note: The girl becomes friends with some street people who help her. They are afraid her ‘fancy clothes’ will get them police interest. Her fancy clothes consist of a black scarf around her head. She is given a paisley scarf to put on. Onscreen just when we’re aching to see her hair, for god’s sake, they cut away and cut back when the new scarf is on. It’s like Disney gone amok. Any glimpse of her hair will throw the audience into a frenzy. It was sort of like a made-for-tv movie where someone is changing and they cut away as the girl pulls the shirt over her head and then cuts back as she pulls the new one down. This film was an interesting look at a teenager’s life rebelling against her parents in a country where morals are more than a state of mind.