MARRIAGE OF THE BLESSED
ARUSI-YE KHUBAN



Iran, 1989, 70 min, color/black & white

After Partial recovery from the impact of the shock waves of an explosion, Haji, a young combatant, leaves the hospital advised by doctors to get married for perfect recuperation. His fiancee's father is a businessman who is planning to marry his daughter to a rich man. While resolving the problem of marriage, Haji gains a new understanding of social problems. He relapses during the wedding and is taken back to the hospital. Going over recent events he comes to the conclusion that the battle front is the only place for him, and he leaves the hospital before complete recovery.

"Shot in color and black & white with considerable visual imagination plus a cast of dedicated actors, the film often resorts to surrealism for the hero's nightmares. Its most interesting aspect is the film's attempt to use shell- shock as the national symptom. It's detached from its basic medical context and looked at not only as the result of the war, but of everything that led to it and is still unsolved, e.g., crime, poverty and women's condition in Iran."