The Traveler

Kiarostami's recent films take an oblique approach to moral problems. Here he stares head-on, capturing human drama in street scenes crammed with the kind of raw poetry that directors from the pampered West seem to have lost sigh of.

Kiarostami's patient, detailed, and wry attention to the infinitesimal practicalities of daily life yields a deep critical cross-section of Iranian society.

The Traveler feels like the frst "real" feature film in this collection, rather than an exploratory work, with many distinctive characters, a variety of settings, and greater use of cinematic conventions.

It's a fine example of how truthful cinema can be when it rejects melodrama and empty gesture in order to concentrate on the bare essentials of character and plot. It's sweetly observed, morally coherent, utterly simple and fiercely economical.