The Hidden Half

Rating:
Summary: Simple ideas can create beautiful movies
Review: I am a big fan of foreign films, but more so of Iranian cinema than others. I am half Iranian and my only setback is I need the subtitles to go along with any of the movies that ineterest me.
In this movie, the subtitles are sometimes practically invisible to read and yet the acting ( especially by Niki Karimi ) is so real and superb, you can almost draw on what emotions are behind the words. It threw me for a loop this film, mostly because I didn't have any clue what I was about to experience when I put in this DVD. What came about was a really ineteresting movie about secrets, and hidden pasts, and the things and people who shape and help our lives. Just when I thought I'd seen the last of the surprises, this movie surprised me again. I don't want to give away how nice and refeshing it is to see a love story in the most innocent of expressions, no nudity, and no sex. And Iran certainly doesn't invest alot of money into their movie making budgets and it proves that you don't always need these common things to produce a really great movie.
I can say this, there are some movies ( Iranian films ) that just lose my attention or I have to force myself to sit through, and there are others; such as The Hidden Half that you can't even imagine missing for a moment.
I really reccomend this film to anyone who wants to see a well made film. Good acting and and a good story.
And when you finish this one, here are some other great Iranian movies to see:

The Color of Paradise
Children of Heaven
Leila

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT MOVIE!!!
Review: I was surprised by the depth and quality of this film. The Hidden is about a woman who finds out a female activist is in jail and about to be executed. Not to give anything a way- she does what she can to free this woman. This is a wonderful tail of secrets, love, passion, advocacy, and care I have ever seen. What was also beautiful was the city itself- set in beautiful Iran. This movie also shows that women are treated respectably and can educate themselves. That they have their own way of expressing addressing their own issues and that we as westerners need to let them do that- with our support.

I would not change anything in this movie. The DVD has chapter selections but your better off watching the whole movie scene by scene or you will skip a lot of information.

Rating:
Summary: A must see film of Iranian cinema
Review: Khosrow is sent from the president's office on a fact-finding mission to Shiraz. His orders are to investigate the complains of a female political, prisoner, awaiting execution. Khosro's wife, being of the same generation as the prisoner, decides to do something about her situation. In order to help her, Freshteh writes of her own participation in the revolution, of which her husband is unaware. In his hotel room in Shiraz, Khosro begins reading his wife's memories the night before he is to visit the prisoner.