Rating: 
Summary: Subtly Brilliant Dramatic Comedy
Review: Billed as a comedy but actually just as much, or more, a drama, something I usually find wrecks movies I got expecting to be a comedy, diluting the humorous parts to the point of impotence and failing to work well on a dramatic level. However, this one of the rare 'dramedies' that hits its mark full on. "Secret Ballot" is an Iranian-made movie about the fledgling Iranian democracy emerging (the film, incidentally, was made before this year's democratic setbacks with the summary disqualifacations of most reform-minded candidates), with a female elections official (wonderfully played by Nassim Abdi) making the rounds with a mobile ballot box to collect votes from residents in a remote region of the Iranian coast and its nearby islands, with Cyrus Abidi as the soldier grudgingly compelled to drive her on her rounds. The humor is light but rich, the drama elements subtle but highly effective, and both raise up some issues without being politically overbearing. The terrain is beautiful and majestic, captured perfectly by the unique cinematography/editing style that uses a number of long, real-time shots with very few cutaways. When a little boat heads out to the larger fishing vessel a few hundred feet offshore it's done in real-time; you can see people getting on and off the smaller boat, faintly seeing them moving around on the the big boat, before the little boat begins to return to shore in the same shot. It might sound tedious but it's not, it just lets you experience the atmosphere and the ocean waves perfectly. The election worker is bright and full of optimism, either oblivious to the distrust of the the system she's working for or utterly refusing to be brought down by it, so steadfast is she in her belief that she's helping everybody move together towards a better future. It's the Middle Eastern Amelie! The soldier at first appears to be the portrait of sullen apathy, but very quickly it shows through that this is an intelligent individual, bogged down in quiet frustration of a life and a system that haven't worked out the way he would have liked. A large number of other interesting characters come and go for varying lengths of time, and it's up to the viewer to determine if there's also a subtle but powerful romantic angle here too.
This is the first Iranian movie I've ever seen, and it's left me wanting to sample more, from different genres too, as well as movies from some other countries in the Middle East, both the Arabic countries and Israel. Very, very refreshing to see the Middle East in a vein other than what you see on the news, which seems to be just real-life violence and tragedy, while the rest gets ignored. A recommended buy.
Rating: 
Summary: (In Fact, It's 3.5 Ponits) One Day, She Came from the Sea...
Review: "Secret Ballot" starts with a unique visual image: a tiny speck of airplane's shadow and something dropping from it, against the beautiful sunrise. And that something plays the central role of this mildly amusing, low-keyed political satire. But that is not all that you will see in this Iran-Italy production. "Secret Ballot" is about an incongrous pair: one laconic soldier guarding somewhere on the sleepy coast of an unnamed island in Iran, and a talkative female civil servant coming there to collect votes for the election. The latter has to complete her job by 5 p.m., and the soldier, to his great dismay, is ordered to accompany her around the island. The small tour is filled with episodes concerning their task. and not many islanders are friendly to her. Or they just don't understand her job. In spite of her lofty idealism and unstoppable energy, her job turns out nothing smooth because of the differences of belief, custom, and language. And so many unexpected things happen to her -- one of the votes is even hidden under a rock. To see her doing at best (still not without disillusion about democracy in general) makes you see the point of the film clear, but there is another asset to the film, an underplayed romantic aspect between the two leads. Watching over her never-ending struggle, the soldier, who was at first very hostile, gradually changes his attitudes towards her. As the appointed time for her to leave comes near, we also understand his feelings to her in his words, which are in themselves very few. Don't miss that point, and that's why a slightly surprise ending gives the entire film more pathos than you expect. No longer this island is a sleepy place for the soldier. As is often the case with Iranian films, "Secret Ballot" is slow-paced and would require your patience. In case you feel sleepy (I confess I did), you might know the following facts about the film. The two leads are in fact non-professionals, and the heroine Nassim Abidi is a student majoring in journalism in college. The director managed to persuade her to join in the film despite the great reluctance on her side. This episode may sound unbelievable when you see her very natural acting on the screen, which is one of the merits of teh film. The soldier's player Cyrus Abidi is recruited for the role in the shopping center in the Kish Island where the film was shot. Actually, it was after the original person who was to play the role bailed out. The film is, as I said, shot on the beautiful Kish island on the Persian Gulf, and the island is known as one of the resort places of Iran. If you want to see more of this beautiful place, see another Iranian film "The Day I Became a Woman." All in all, "Secret Ballot" is an amusing and thought-provoking film. The director Babak Payami, who was born in Iran but had lived in Canada for nearly twenty years until 1998, has a knack for realizing the atomosphere of the place. The film's long sequence may be called overused, and the running time should be shorter than now, "Secret Ballot" is a charming film, especially because of its bitter-sweet ending. Don't follow the story; watch this one very slowly.
Rating:
Summary: A simple - and slow-moving - little pleasure
Review: 'Secret Ballot' is the epitome of a 'small' movie. Set on a desolate island off the coast of Iran, it's the story of a voting agent's day - 8:30 AM to 5 PM - as she tries to collect the votes of the island's sparse population while in the company of a grumpy Iranian army conscript. Along the way, she tackles: 1) Sexism (as the conscript tells her: "They told me an agent was coming, not a woman"). 2) Illiteracy (she's forced to resort to pictures of the candidates) 3) Fundamentalism ("I cast my vote for God" one guy keeps telling her) 4) Apathy and skeptism (and who can blame these folks? Despite Khatami's 'democratic' victory, the unelected theocrats still rule the day in Iran) ...and a lot more. The relationship between the two leads develops slowly and you have very nuanced exchanges like: Conscript: "When is the next election?" Agent: "In four years. Elections are held every four years." Conscript: "Why not hold them three or four times a year? That would be better" ...by this point in the film, this isn't a political statement. It's just the conscript's very (very) subtle way of saying "Gee, it would be great if I could see you more." Here's a warning: This is a *very* slow-moving film. There are sequences at the beginning where you see a soldier spend five minutes getting ready for bed (in a dilapidated outside cot); then the agent spend two minutes getting the sand off of her feet. I can see Babak Payami's motivation here. We're being shown how simple and unaffected - and pretty darn difficult - life is on this island. But if you're watching this on a full stomach, be careful: you may nod off. This is not intended as a slam of the film, which - on the whole - I enjoyed very much. I'm just saying you're going to need some energy to soldier through the first 20 minutes of 'Secret Ballot.' Just being honest.
Rating: 
Summary: A Quiet Gem
Review: - What a wonderful, charming little film! And it's very, very funny! I loved it and laughed out loud many, many times. My 20-year old son didn't get it, though. I suppose many people won't get it, but that's OK. For them there's Weekend at Bernies. Secret Ballot is serene in its approach, but bitingly sardonic in its message. The film opens with these two "guards" with the Iranian army. We don't really know what they are "guarding" (against smuddlers, maybe?). They live on a beach... they split 12-hour shifts... they sleep on the bottom bunk... the bed is outdoors on the beach... the old jeep is in the tent... the government airdrops the ballot box... and the ballot official is a woman.... One of the guards must drive her around the island collecting ballots. It's theater of the absurd in the persian gulf. Wonderful. And, best of all, rated G! Try it, and give it time to settle in. -
Rating:
Summary: A Quiet Gem
Review: - What a wonderful, charming little film! And it's very, very funny! I loved it and laughed out loud many, many times. My 20-year old son didn't get it, though. I suppose many people won't get it, but that's OK. For them there's Weekend at Bernies. Secret Ballot is serene in its approach, but bitingly sardonic in its message. The film opens with these two "guards" with the Iranian army. We don't really know what they are "guarding" (against smuddlers, maybe?). They live on a beach... they split 12-hour shifts... they sleep on the bottom bunk... the bed is outdoors on the beach... the old jeep is in the tent... the government airdrops the ballot box... and the ballot official is a woman.... One of the guards must drive her around the island collecting ballots. It's theater of the absurd in the persian gulf. Wonderful. And, best of all, rated G! Try it, and give it time to settle in. -
Rating: 
Summary: Watch it by chewing energy bars constantly
Review: Again, a simple-minded movie like "The Wind Will Carry Us". This time, on a remote Island belongs to Iran. You have to arm yourself with extra energy and spirit, especially A PATIENT MIND to keep on watch and finish this film. You can also to pretend how deep instead of how shallow you might be by appreciating or by not knowing how to appreciate this film. Knowing any marriage with a wife or husband so annoyingly blabbings all the time? Or sitting in a classroom trying very hard to listen to a lousy professor to blahblahblah? Or try to become a drifter to pick up someone's chewing gum to chew some non-exist taste out of it? Well, if you could appreciate this film, you should get "The Wind Will Carry Us", it definitely won't disappoint you. God Bless.
Rating:
Summary: Not for Everyone
Review: I borrowed this movie from a friend and it was pretty good. But this movie is definately NOT for everyone.
First off, it's not like a typical American movie. Nobody gets blown up, nobody gets bloodied up, no special effects or computer generation. But I watch a lot of movies, especially foreign films, so I had no problem watching this.
Also, this is an Iranian movie so you need to take in the consideration of the role that woman play. That will definately help you to understand the movie better.
The movie moves very slow, as I'm sure a few reviewers have probabally said already. But anyway, heres my summary of the movie:
A soldier (Cyrus Abidi) has to escort a person sent from the government to collect ballots form the people of an island off thr coast of Iran. This ballot-collector just happens to be a woman (Nassim Abdi) and the soldier is not to happy about this. He makes comments like "They told me an agent was coming, not a woman" amongst some other sexist things. But thats how life is.
So they go around the island and try to collect peoples ballots and get back to the base to get picked up at 5. A lot of people don't want to vote and when they do vote, the candidates they want to vote for aren't on the aproved ballot. So you can imagine what kinds of things result.
All in all, this movie was funny, but not everyone gets the humor. My freind watched this movie as well and thought it a movie with no point. So I suggest you rent this movie or borrow it from a freind if possible before you actually buy it.
Rating: 
Summary: very pretentious
Review: I have seen alot of Iranian films but I think this one is a bit on pretentious side. Maybe it inflicts the thoughts and style of the director, but I didn't like it at all anyway. Thoroughly boring! I have to say that the comparison that another reviewer made with Kiarostami's "Wind Will Carry Us" is totally out of line. The later is an absolute gem. A film doesn't have to be fast-moving to be good, provided that there's a thoughtful style behind it. Secret ballot lacks that. Wind will carry us is full of that!
Rating:
Summary: Could have used some editing
Review: I really wanted to like this film. It did raise some interesting points about society and humanity. I'll even agree with some of the other reviewers that the more subtextual approach could be easily missed by those expecting a hollywood-style movie. Yet the film was really slow. There are repeated periods of protracted landscape shots that add nothing to the movie. This would have been a much better film had it been half as long as it was. I wouldn't consider it a comedy, as it wasn't the least bit funny.
Rating:
Summary: Democracy storms a sleepy place
Review: In the first scene of SECRET BALLOT, a large box is parachuted from of a plane flying out of the sunrise. It lands on an Iranian island, on the beach guarded by two soldiers. These are apparently the only two armed representatives of authority in the place, and "guard" may be an overstatement. Catching smugglers is their assignment, but they do it with only one bed, one rifle, and one timepiece between them. In any case, inside the crate are a ballot box and instructions for the soldiers to expect the arrival of an elections agent at 8:00 AM. They're further ordered to escort the agent around the island and collect votes in that day's national election. A half-hour late, a small motorboat lands on the beach, and off clambers the agent - a modern young woman complete with chador and a missionary zeal for her job, which must be completed by 5:00 PM. At first, the soldier on duty is reluctant to do the agent's bidding. After all, she's a woman, and this is Islamic Iran. However, after she waves the undeniable fact of "his orders" in his face, off they bounce in a jeep to harvest ballots for the box. The film's screenplay does not provide names for the agent or the soldier, but they're played by Nassim Abdi and Cyrus Abidi respectively. The humor and pace of SECRET BALLOT is much like the island itself - sleepy. In fact, you may need a large java to stay focused on the English subtitles of the Farsi dialogue. But the film isn't without a gentle charm, especially if you're curious about the world around you and you've not been to this corner of it. The soldier is, to put it charitably, a stolid, unimaginative sort. But he does know the pulse of the island. During the day's rounds, the agent, her idealism, and the "approved list" of candidates (from which each voter must select two) are confronted by the realities of the local electorate, e.g., woman who won't vote without instructions from their men, men who won't vote because their candidates aren't on the list, and a religious fundamentalist who insists on Allah as a write-in candidate. At day's end, the agent and the soldier see each other in a different light, and each is the better for it. We first suspect the change in perhaps the movie's most humorous scene when the soldier halts the jeep at a red light in the middle of nowhere with no other moving vehicles in sight. SECRET BALLOT has no eye-popping special FX, white-knuckle action, belly laughs, or stunning dramatic moments. But I'm giving it a marginal thumbs-up because it's a small window on a world much different than my own, and I appreciate the perspicacity of the view.
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