Charsou Art and Cultural Institute is to have a single screening of “First Case, Second Case,” a 1979 medium-length docufiction directed by the late auteur Abbas Kiarostami, on July 1.
The film starts with a teacher who, while writing on the board, is interrupted several times by the sound of a pen banging rhythmically on a desk. Every time he turns around the noise stops, only to resume again.
Finally, unable to find the mischief-maker, the teacher expels seven boys from the class, including the guilty one, who has not owned up nor is exposed by his classmates.
The director has made two possible endings for his film. In the First Case, a student turns in his guilty classmate after two days of suspension. In the Second Case, the students remain in solidarity and refuse to turn in the noisemaker.
What makes the film intriguing is the subsequent discussion with notable figures after both cases have been shown to them.
Some of the interviewees believe that the students should not snitch on each other while some think the students should very well turn in their guilty classmate because the disruption hurts the whole class. There are even some who blame the teacher for putting his students in such a position.
Poet Ali Mousavi-Garmaroudi, filmmaker Masoud Kimiai, and the first education minister after the 1979 Islamic Revolution Gholamhossein Shokouhi are among the figures Kiarostami interviewed for his film.
The venue is located at No. 24, Shaqaqi Street, north west of Seyyed Khandan Bridge.
