User Reviews

Like many nations with struggling economies, Iran has people as one it's exports. The excellent new film We Are All Fine examines not the problems faced by those that leave, but those that stay home. Jamshid has been abroad for six years. It's been two years since anyone in the family has heard from him. Like many, he left with the declared intent of earning a piece of money and returning in a couple of years. Formerly a regular correspondent, sending both money and letters, Jamshid's family has not heard from him in over two years. The family has settled into a consistent, if still struggling, ritual of survival. All is thrown into confusion and conflict though when a man claiming to be a friend of Jamshid's shows up at their door, apparently sent on a mission to get the family to record video messages for Jamshid that the friend will take back with him.

Jamshid's sister Nahid (Leila Zare) is now the family's sole breadwinner. With Iran's high unemployment she can take little solace in the fact that her employed status has become more important than a dowry as her earnings go towards supporting her mother, father, grandfather, younger brother plus Jamshid's wife and daughter whom he left behind in Iran. Jamshid's abandonment of the family has left her with little sympathy for him and no desire to participate in the video messages. Her father Abbas (Ali Rashvand) is unhappy along the same lines. His anger over his son's behavior is compounded by his failing health and frustration over being helpless to provide for the family. The two are countered by the mother (Ahoo Kheradmand) and Omid (Mohsen Ghazimorad), neither of whom want to put off Jamshid, though for different reasons. Mom just wants to hear from her son again and fears that expressing displeasure might keep him away. Omid is dissatisfied with his life and looks to his older brother for guidance and help. Omid can't relate to Nahid's aversion to the video asking, "He's asked for something after all this time, we can't just disregard it." Omid's finishing up his military service and his education but has few prospects for either marriage or a job. He talks about emigrating with another soldier during the morning flag- raising ceremony. These are several comments director Bizhan Mirbaqeri makes about the current state of affairs in Iran.

The story is told with two different cameras, the first being a very well-framed 35 mm steadicam. Mirbaqeri captures scene after scene with an excellent eye for visual metaphor. The transition shots of the family members walking between rooms in the house are especially effective. This is combined and contrasted well with the digital camera the family rents to film the messages for Jamshid. Never is this put to more effective use than when Jamshid's wife Vida (Aida Keykhahni) takes her turn in front of the camera. Her description of becoming "a widow at 20" is the most powerful moment of the film. We Are All Fine is not without missteps. Most glaring is an unnecessary and unresolved romance subplot involving Omid. The flaws though are minor and few making the film an even more striking success for a first-time director like Mirbaqeri.

"Brain drain" afflicts many of the poorer parts of the world. Often the best and brightest leave to pursue opportunities abroad that are not available to them at home and far too many do not return. In places where the conditions are exceptionally bad the problem is sometimes severe enough that emigration has curtailed economic development. It's not unlike Vida's situation. The motherland becoming a widow before there was ever really a marriage.