Not that any time isn't a good time for a hokey star-crossed-lovers story. But Azizollah Hamidnezhad's The Tear Of The Cold does benefit in realism from recent events in Iraq.
Set in 1983 in occupied Kurdistan at the height of the Iran-Iraq War, the movie finds a group of besieged Iranian soldiers trying to control a populace that hates them. Smiles from the locals are often preludes to murderous surprise attacks. This in turn has the frightened occupiers regarding the locals with a loathing that expresses itself in acts of blithe barbarism.
Sound familiar? Replace "Iranian" with "American" and The Tear Of The Cold becomes contemporary.
An Abu Ghraib-like mentality is in play when we meet Kiyani, an idealistic young minesweeper who is almost supernaturally good at what he does. Call him "The Landmine Whisperer." He's been called into play because so many of the platoon's men have been picked off by the locals' highly effective landmine campaign.
Kiyani is immediately put off by his brothers-in-arms' attitude to the Kurds, and he commits an act of insubordination when he finds them taking target practice at a peasant shepherd girl whose flock has wandered near the barracks. An unabashed softie, he is convinced that the key to holding the territory is to win over the locals with acts of kindness -- starting with a puppy-eyed apology to the terrified shepherd girl.
Whoops. Seems the girl Ronak (Golshifteh Farahani) is actually an operative for the local Kurdish freedom-fighters/terrorists, and she's been expressly ordered to kill Kiyani because of his success at hampering their mine campaign.
Once that plot is in play, director Hamidnezhad proceeds to turn the movie into a set piece through the contrivance of having a massive blizzard move in, forcing Ronak and Kiyani to take refuge in a cave.
Ronak -- who is still secretly in contact with her comrades -- initially is intent on finding just the right opportunity to put a bullet in Kiyani's brain. But, of course, love blossoms in close quarters. And when she accidentally breaks her leg, and he becomes her saviour intent on dragging her to medical help, the assassination plan goes out the window.
It's certainly no spoiler to allow that things end tragically.
Dramatically, the scenes in the cave are the core of the movie. And Hamidnezhad, being deprived by Iranian prudishness of even having his characters kiss, resorts to overblown facial expressions that give The Tear Of The Cold an almost silent-movie-ish feel. Eyebrows are raised, nostrils flare, furtive smiles abound.
It's a quaint approach to romantic storytelling that seems a little awkward. Nonetheless, The Tear Of The Cold shows that certain kinds of schmaltz are universal.
(This film is rated PG)
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