MELODY

• International Feature Review:

“I must go where the birds are free.”

Melody is the International Feature submission for Tajikistan. Written and directed by Behrouz Sebt Rasoul, the film takes place in a care centre for children with cancer. The thirty children who are patients at this facility have asked their teacher, Melody, to compose a musical piece using the sounds of thirty different birds. In order to finish this project, she goes back to her home village to record the birds living in that area.

As Melody’s reunited with her mute caretaker, Mango, of their family home, they both work together to record twenty birds. Struggling to find the remaining ten, they seek out an old villager who lives alone in a remote part of her hometown. They need his help to find the remaining birds in order to finish the composition that her students so desperately want to hear. But along that journey, Melody begins to learn a life long lesson.

Melody is an effortless, yet powerful message about the intricate bond between humans and animals. It’s a beautiful, quiet story about one’s quest to finish a project, against all odds, but in that process, to become a different person. The music is the heart and soul of the film

As the film progresses, it delicately portrays being one with nature. It gives us an immediate feeling of peace and calm. It involves letting ourselves become absorbed with the natural world. Nature can be a place where we can sit and reflect on life’s meaning, away from the distractions and demands of our regular lives. It allows for us to hear birds, even the most difficult ones to find, in order to create an eternal melody, not only from their voices, but to understand what goes on inside them.

Melody is a confident directorial debut for Behrouz Sebt Rasoul. You must be like them first, and then become a human

Link:

https://www.international-feature.com/tajikistan—melody.html

by Sadullo Rahimov
Film critic, FIPRESCI member, Doctor of Philosophy, professor

When the film is polyphonic

The film surprised me with an unusual presentation of the material. It is being built in a complex language, similar to many other art films. The author is searching for expression of the language for his idea throughout the film. Till the very end, it feels eternally unfinished.

Bearing in mind the principles of using incompleteness in classical Japanese graphics, this incompleteness intrigues the viewer to seek, together with the author, the form and means of finding the realization of the idea. This penetrates the audience’s mind for creative thinking………….

Link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody_(2023_film)