By Michael Colford
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Babak Payami
Starring: Cyrus Abidi | Nassim Abdi
Original language title: Raye makhfi
Country: canada, iran, italy, switzerland
Year: 2002
Running time: 103
IMDB: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0290823
Michael says: “Babak Payami’s SECRET BALLOT is an interesting Iranian film dealing with a nation’s population and its ability to change the way things work. A box is dropped from a helicopter to an army guard post where two soldiers take turns sleeping and keeping guard on a remote island in Iran. The instructions in the box say that an election agent will arrive that morning. The soldier must accompany the agent and collect election ballots from the inhabitants of the area. When the agent arrives and it is a woman, the soldier is perplexed. He can’t take orders from a woman, yet his orders from his superiors are clear. With this difficult start, the unlikely duo sets off on their task.
“The agent is enthusiastic and sure of her job, but as the day wears on, it becomes clear that obtaining the votes of these people will take a great deal of patience, and sometimes persuasion. As the day draws to a close, her belief in the system and its ability to make change over time is shaken. The surprising ending turns things around again, and we see, as the agent has urged repeatedly throughout the movie, change can happen, but it takes time.
“Payami uses a static camera and many long shots to convey the enormity of the task before the agent, as well as her growing feeling of insignificance before a people steeped in tradition and quasi-despair. Representing the status quo is the soldier, yet as the day grows long, could his resolve be slowly adapting to the ideas of the agent?
“Filled with subtle humor, SECRET BALLOT is reminiscent of the films of Zhang Yimou, and other films about the country folk of China in how it represents the stubbornness and resolve of the individual.” 3 1/2 cats