Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami experiments with cinematic expectations in Shirin as his camera gaze remains fixed on an all female cinema audience of more than 100 women absorbed in viewing a classic Persian love story of star-crossed love as well known in modern-day Iran as Romeo and Juliet is in the West. Kiarostami never shows the film the women are watching, rather the action and sentiments of the film are played out on the women’s faces to astonishing effect.
Shirin creates a strong illusion of real women watching a real film, however the audience is in fact made up of well-known Iranian actresses (plus Juliette Binoche). With a series of portraits of women young and old, the viewer becomes mesmerised in an altogether different manner of film viewing, taking in the various emotions through the various expressions; from the wistful, quizzical, amused, and enraptured to the distraught. With a greater sense of awareness built upon by the film’s impassioned narration, dramatic dialogue, romantic, doom-laden score, and richly evocative sound effects, which ultimately adds to the restricted viewer insight. Shirin demands that we use our own imaginations, whether piecing together the unseen melodrama or speculating on the off-screen lives of its female audience. While never failing to engage our emotions, Kiarostami’s Shirin also heightens our appreciation of the beguiling, subversive and consoling power of cinematic story-telling. An incredibly emotional experience!