Memorable, crazy movie

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

_Secret Ballot_ is an important film and even a surprising one, with its not so subtle message of voting equality for all. The protagonist is likable and so is her sidekick, the soldier/begrudging escort. The scenery is wonderful as are the insights into a culture that is so seemingly disparate from ours in the US.I also thought the film was subversive in many ways and was surprised it got past the strict censorship that governs the film industry in Iran. _Secret Ballot_ clearly asserts the importance of female equality, and the sexist soldier even exemplifies his respect for her at the end of the movie in a scene that is sweet and touching.There also seems to be the slightest hint of romantic feelings between the two. At first, the ballot collector rides in the backseat of the car, but at the movie's end, she is riding in the passenger's seat. When the ballot collector stops midway to the airplane to give one last look to the soldier, it is a wistful moment. These "feelings" seem to be reciprocated by the soldier when in the last frames, that are almost identical to the first, the soldier/escort tells his pal that he will go on guard duty, because "he cannot sleep" anyway.Still, the pacing of this film is very slow, and at times I could understand why some claim it verges on boring. It is a movie that is probably more significant and thought provoking than enjoyable.

"Secret Ballot (Raye makhfi)" should be required viewing in every class in the country that deals with civics, government, and social studies (it wouldn't hurt the kids to read the subtitles). And it wouldn't hurt for policy makers who mouth off about allies while ignoring lack of democracy to see this too. The story is simple -- an idealistic government agent is sent to get as many votes as possible by 5 pm on a desert island (I didn't even know Iran has such islands, let alone that they are populated.) The agent is accompanied by a resentful, cynical soldier. On this unique road trip of a scavenger hunt they each are changed in subtle ways by each other and the wide variety of characters they meet up with who deal with their first exposure to them, to voting and to a secret ballot in a variety of complex ways that are beyond American experiences.The movie vividly demonstrates the physical,logistical, psychological, political and social challenges of bringing some semblance of democracy to other cultures, let alone to the Mideast. While the amateur actors keep this from having an emotional Hollywood satisfaction so it feels more like a docudrama/comedy, their reality (including the obvious censorship restrictions) brings it all home anyway. (originally written 9/2/2002)

I thought I'd add another comment to the mix of comments made about this film, which is that this film also tackles the issue of Iran's treatment of its Arab minority. This minority lives primarily in a western province called khuzestan (borders w/iraq), and along the western coastline, where the island portrayed in the movie happens to lie.Most of the local inhabitants that the election official meets speak Arabic, some dont even speak Farsi (like the man in Granny Naghoo's compound). Being semitic, they have different physical appearances from the iranians, who are indo-european. And their customs are more similar to the arabs on the arab side of the persian gulf.In addition to making points about democracy and about gender issues, Secret Ballot is also about the distance of Iran's central government from its Arab minority, seeming to be out of touch with their customs, their concerns, and their issues.Incidentally, this theme of how Iran deals with its minorities is also addressed in Baran (Majid Majidi), but in that case it's about Iran's Afghan minority.Congratulations to Babak Payami for a wonderful little gem of a movie.

I just saw this film on the Vienna film festival and found it one of the most lovable comedies ever. It tells about a female voting agent who comes to the middle of nowhere to collect the votes on election day. There, she is faced with lack of interest from the "citizens" and other unexpected problems. Not to mention a local soldier who doesn't like at all that he has to carry her around by car instead of chasing smugglers... The humor of the film is lovely and attains sometimes satirical and even philosophical depth, regarding the futility and inherent senselessness of the voting agent's work in this environment.A highly watchable and recommendable film, even for those who are not very familiar with Iranian cinema, because the pacing of the story never becomes too slow for European viewers.