Donya (2002)

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Blistering performances.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

I've seen a few Iranian movies over the years: "A Taste of Cherries" and "A Separation" are among the notable ones. Another interesting one is Manuchehr Mosayeri's "Donya". Hedieh Tehrani plays a woman who's just returned to Iran after spending some time abroad. She starts up a relationship with a conservative older man who already has a family.This is not one of those movies that throws a lot of things on the screen to catch your attention. Quite the opposite, it requires an attention span since it's all about the characters and their relationships. The subtitles on the copy that I saw were a little bit funny, but it's a movie that I really recommend. One of the most important things that it shows is that behind Iran's government is a population that has to live its day-to-day lives. The election of a moderate to Iran's presidency has created a new opportunity for a lessening of tensions between the US and Iran, so it's important to seize the opportunity.

Donya is one of those few well directed comedies of Iran cinema, also well written and well acted. Although it is required to mention that Hedye Tehrani played the most important role in this success, the actress who for sure is the only superstar of Iran cinema, of course not the best. And at the other hand Sharifinia seems to be great in acting in such roles! Haji's newly stirred passions including updating his clothing style, cutting his hair, and sending his wife and family on a vacation to get them out of the way is a lot of fun.It could be a good idea to show the movie in international film festivals,as that might be a lot of fun for the foreigners to watch the relationship between a very conservative religious married man and a modern single woman.

Both Tehrani as the beautiful title character and Sharifinia as the scheming Hadji make DONYA worthy of a look. Together, they have the looks and the talent to make a great pair of international stars. Though the movie is a tad slow in the early going, it doesn't take long for things to start to jell. The standout here (in my own, ever humble opinion) is Sharifinia: he shows the necessary range to handle most any (acting) situation. (It would be interesting, indeed, to see him play it straight- no humor, no lovable bumbling- in a political thriller or a murder mystery. He has the face for it.) Not to be overlooked, Ms. Tehrani more than holds her own. It would be nice to see the both of them together again in another type of film.

I was interested in the movie because I understood it was popular in Iran. It was interesting to see the costuming, what was old-fashioned and traditional for men vs. new and western. What the first wife wore, traditional, what Donya wore, modern and alluring, though she was all covered up, she did wear jeans with knee-length shirt, and the way she wore her scarf, though it covered her hair and neck, did give us a better idea of where her waist might be than the more traditional outfit.I don't really understand the ending of the movie. So, did he give Donya fake papers and not really marry her? And, she did it all to get her father's house back from him, and she says that it's like he killed her father, because he bought her father's house years ago?I felt like they made Donya to be a bad person in the end, when her cousin was saying she was no longer pure. Which makes who she is a lot less interesting.