Bonbast [Dead End] (Parviz Sayyad, 1977)

Mary Apick in Bonbast

A daydreamer of a girl (Mary Apick) sees a man standing under her window day and night. Thinking that he must be in love with her, she gets into an imaginary conversation with the man (in a fine use of inner voice) as he continues to follow her everywhere. Eventually, they talk but his and her intentions are not the same, leading to one of the most shattering endings in Iranian cinema.

In the opening title card, Sayyad mentions Anton Chekov as the inspiration for the story (the story, unmentioned, is From the Diary of a Young Girl) but adds more ambiguity by stating that "the current climate in society" prompted him to tell the story hence aiming for one of the most forward films of the late 1970s about the search for and failure in finding happiness in a society built on fear and surveillance.

The influence of Sohrab Shahid Saless, in the pacing of the film and the lack of score, is prevalent but Sayyad's mise-en-scene in a film mostly set in a drab room is so calculated that it reminds us how underrated a director he remains to be. (Look at the use of the absent brother's framed pictures before he eventually returns home.) The image-maker of the Iranian new wave, the cinematographer Houshang Baharlou, overcomes the spatial limit with imagination. The ensemble cast in this one of the timeliest and most relevant films of the 1970s is memorable, especially Mary Apick and Apick Youssefian, mother/daughter also in real life, as well as a brief but memorable appearance by Bahman Zarrinpour. – Ehsan Khoshbakht

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Bonbast (Dead End). 1977. Iran. Written and directed by Parviz Sayyad. With Mary Apick, Apick Youssefian, Parviz Bahador. In Persian; English subtitles. 75 min.