TEHRAN – MercatorNet, an Australian website promoting the family and human dignity, has praised Iranian director Mohammadreza Kheradmandan’s two-minute movie “Thursday Appointment”, calling it ‘another gem from Iranian cinema’.

The 2019 film is about an elderly couple making their way through traffic and reciting to each other a poem by the great Persian poet Hafez. Meanwhile, the old man notices a young girl who is sad in the back seat of her parent’s car, they are too busy arguing. He intervenes and gives his wife’s flowers to the young couple to stop them from arguing. We only realize how important those flowers were to the old man when he drives off.

“It never ceases to amaze me that despite all the wealth, experience, and tradition of American cinema, it seldom matches the depth and humanity of the best Iranian films. Asghar Farhadi’s family drama A Separation, for instance, won an Oscar in 2012. I can’t think of many films which combine so successfully deep moral issues, intricate plotting, and painfully realistic human drama,” reads part of the article titled “Is this the best short film about marriage you’ll ever see?”, written by Australian editor Michael Cook, which was published on April 14.

Calling it ‘another gem from Iranian cinema’, Cook invites the readers to watch “Thursday Appointment”, a short film about poetry, traffic, child poverty, the wisdom of old age, good marriages, bad marriages, empathy, and kindness.

“A good short film is a kind of cinematic haiku which leaves you breathless with its insight. This is a very good short film,” it continues.

Born in 1984, Kheradmandan directed his first feature film “21 Days Later” in 2017, which won the audience award at the 35th Fajr International Film Festival.

He has made several short films and animated movies as well as TV series and has been nominated and awarded in various national and international events.

Photo: A scene from Iranian director Mohammadreza Kheradmandan’s short film “Thursday Appointment”

ABU/MG