THE CYCLIST
BICYCLERAN



Iran, 1989, 83 min, color

Noghre, Nasim's wife - an Afghani immigrant - is suffering from a bad disease, the treatment for which needs a lot of money. Nasim hospitalizes her after a lot of begging and insisting so that he can go after the money they need. When a middleman finds out that Nasim was once a cycling champion and that he has the reputation of a marathon cyclist, he proposes to him that he cycle in one of the squares in the city for one week so that people gather there and he can make money and Nasim can earn a wage to be able to pay the hospital expenses for his wife. Nasim accepts and soon the cycling square turns into an arena and a total circus is held to fill the pockets of those who are holding the strings of others' fates in their hands. A lot of incidents take place and this changes into a social crisis. Eventually the one-week cycling of Nasim is over but the middleman takes the money and runs away with a gypsy woman. The gamblers are now looking for new plans for betting and the reporters are waiting for Nasim's cycling to come to an end. But he continues and doesn't want to get out of the circle in which he has been trapped. In a way it is not obvious if he has accepted the circle of his compulsory fate or if he has turned into a myth.