Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Mehdi Hosseinivand Aalipour
Starring: Ebrahim Zarozehi, Ghazal Shojaie, Hadi Kazemi
American media loves to report stories about kids selling home made
lemonade and such in order to raise money so they or their family
members can pay for a life-saving operation. There are two ways to view
such stories. You can either be inspired by the moxie of the kids in
question or you can be disgusted by a society that forces them into such
a scenario. Shot with an objective distance,
Mehdi Hoseinivand Aalipour’s debut feature
Asteroid often feels like one of those stories, allowing
the viewer to draw their own conclusions as to whether it's an inspiring
film or one critical of the society it plays out in.
Ebrahim Zarozehi, who looks like a shrunken young Dustin
Hoffman, is certainly charismatic as 12-year-old Ebrahim, who lives in
hardship but is fuelled by an entrepreneurial zest. With his father and
older brother having disappeared in ambiguous circumstances, Ebrahim is
the man of his house, which he shares with his mother and various
younger siblings.
The house is kept largely afloat by the wages earned by Ebrahim through
a variety of jobs. Ebrahim goes through more occupations here than Frank
Spencer in an entire season of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. When we meet
him first he's shaking dates from a tree. His caution in ensuring he
doesn't knock a pair of chicks from their nest while his foreman roars
at him from below tells us that while Ebrahim has entrepreneurial
ambitions, he's not willing to disrupt any lives to achieve his goals.
He's a hard worker, but he's working to live, and so his family can
live. When he's not engaged in work for others he's helping build a new
home for his family.
Even when he's being castigated by various employers, none of whom see
the irony of hiring a child and then moaning about his standard of work,
Ebrahim keeps a smile on his face. It's almost exhausting just watching
him work, but he never complains, though he does occasionally have a
smart retort for his elder bosses. It's all character building, but
should a child have to build character at such a young age? Of course
not.
It takes the surprise arrival of a stranger, a pilot who emergency
lands his small plane in Ebrahim's village, for Ebrahim to have an
encounter with an adult who views him as a child rather than a worker.
As Ebrahim and his brothers and sisters sit in the cockpit and pretend
to fly, it's a moment of joy but also a sad reminder that this is
probably the closest they'll get to escaping the poverty they live in.
But is this a world Ebrahim should want to escape from? Few of us would
wish it for our own children, but for Ebrahim it all seems a big
adventure. Is ignorance bliss or has Ebrahim found a happiness that
eludes many of us? These are questions Aalipour’s often frustrating
ambiguity will force its audience to ask.
