THE COLOR OF PARADISE: Hands-Down Masterpiece

Mohammad (Mohsen Ramezani) is an Iranian boy attending a school for blind children in Tehran. It is a boarding school where the children spend the whole year, only going home during the vacation period. It is the last day of the school year, and the parents are expected to arrive the next day to take their children home. The boy does not have a mother. His father (Hossein Mahjoob), whose journey from across the distant sea takes several days, will come to pick him up. However, the father does not arrive at the appointed time. He comes the next day to ask the principal for permission to leave the boy at the school during the summer holidays as well. The principal, outraged, refuses. So, father and son set off on a journey to their hometown. The Color of Paradise.

Mohammad’s father is an unhappy man; his wife died five years ago, his son is blind, he is poor, and he works hard to support three children, his mother, and a crumbling house. He is bitter and rebels against his God. His blind son becomes the embodiment of the misfortunes he faces in life, and unable to come to terms with his fate, he sees the cause of his suffering in him. He feels the need for change, and his son seems to be the barrier separating him from the happiness he desires. He is a burden, a weight around his neck, bearing a responsibility he is tired of. He becomes a symbol of life’s failure. His ego whispers to him that the best solution would be to remove him from the family, to eliminate him from the path, and finally erase him from his life. The question arises – how far will he go to achieve his goal? Is he ready to do it at any cost?

Mohammad, on the other hand, is an example of the opposite attitude – joy, full of humble acceptance of reality. Not resignation to the misery of life, but finding joy in every moment of being in this world. The boy can see God in every aspect of Creation: in sounds, smells, and, above all, in the shapes he feels with his fingers, accustomed to reading Braille. He sees and understands more by using his sense of touch than many of us do by using all of our senses. In several beautiful, deeply moving scenes, when Mohammad reads the shapes created by nature – from the arrangement of stones at the bottom of a stream, to a wheat ear, to sea sand, and even a human face – he gives the impression that he can translate every form created by God into a language he understands, into letters and sounds. It becomes clear to us who the true sage is, from whom we should learn joy, humility, and respect for life and the surrounding reality.

Thus, we have a paradoxical situation – a ten-year-old boy turns out to be the teacher, the embodiment of wisdom and faith, while his father is the student, the prodigal son learning about life. However, before Mohammad’s father learns this, he will have to go through a very painful lesson to understand how much must be lost to reach what is most important. Rebellion against God and his fate will lead him to the edge of a precipice, one that may consume him, but may also give him faith and restore the proper balance in the world around him.

The Color of Paradise is one of the most emotionally charged films I have ever seen. The acting of the main characters cannot be overlooked; they perform their roles with such sincerity and simplicity that at times, it feels like we are watching scenes from real life. Especially with the boy, there is not even a hint of the childish mannerisms that are often seen in very young actors. Perhaps that is because he is not an actor. The director hired a non-professional actor – a boy who has been blind since birth. Can you imagine acting for a camera that you cannot see, not knowing the true expressions of your face, never having seen it in a mirror? In Mohsen Ramezani’s performance, there is not an ounce of vanity, theatrics, or studied pose, no falseness at all. Pure sincerity and truth. Perhaps that is why, from the very first frame, he captivates the viewer, filling the screen with emotions that are very rare in cinema today, and doing so in the simplest possible way.

The film was also beautifully shot. The idyllic atmosphere of the Iranian village truly evokes paradise – full of vibrant colors, flowers, and colorful clothes that harmonize perfectly with the leisurely pace of the narrative. The poetic vision of the world in The Color of Paradise in Mohammad Davoodi’s cinematography, the music, and the atmosphere come together to create one perfect image. In the film, a line is spoken that blind people are privileged because they have the chance to see what others cannot see, they can search for and find their God before others. I don’t know what the God of the blind looks like, I don’t know if He even exists, but one thing I am sure of – if He does, they will certainly see Him before us.