There is a sense of irony with the title of Mehrshad Ranjbar's short film “Talker”, since there is no talk at all in it. It is a wordless observation and examination of a certain routine and the burden of it. As such, it had a fruitful (virtual) festival tour last year with the notable stops at Tampere and Tirana. We were lucky to catch it at Osaka Asian Film Festival.
Talker screened at Osaka Asian Film Festival
It opens with a modest dinner that an elderly couple shares in their modest rural home. The old lady (Maryam Nourafkan) is more focused on the needs of her husband (Abbasali Jalallou) than on her own, as he is ill and pretty much unable to move. The end of that day simply brings the beginning of the new one and the same routine all over again, as she takes care of the house and of him.
It is exhausting, but for her, it is a duty, and even if she would be relieved of her burden, she would not feel liberated at all, as Ranjbar points out at the end with two simple tricks. Until then, “Talker” is just an observation of love and care without any comment attached to it. Of those tricks, one is purely directorial: the music written by Aryan Khosravi kicks in only at the precise point of time. The second one is dramaturgical, pointing out that care is a co-dependant relationship, since the carer needs someone to care for.
Wordlessness takes some of the pressure from the actors that do not have to struggle with the line delivery whose stiffness is a bit of a trademark of the Iranian cinema and puts more spotlight on the technical solutions. The cinematographer Hashem Moradi is a perfect executor of the director's will, since the shots, whether they are static or in a controlled state of motion, seem highly organic and natural. (Kudos to the colourist for keeping the natural colours, too.) However, the editing by Sadegh Rezania is more functional than flashy and focuses more on the clarity than on the rhythm.
“Talker” would probably be more effective as a documentary, but the ethics of that kind of work would be questionable. Nevertheless, it works just fine as a fiction short, speaking volumes in the stoic silence.
