"Where is the Friend’s Home?" - Film Review

We’ve all been faced with a choice at one point or another. It may not have been the most earthshattering choice, but in the moment, on that day, that choice felt like life or death. We’ve all had to make a decision where we didn’t need to do something, but by not doing something it would lead to consequences for other people.

Where is the Friend’s Home? is about a choice. A boy Ahmed (Babek Ahmed Poor) accidentally takes his classmate Mohamed Reda Nematzadeh’s (Ahmed Ahmed Poor) schoolbook and he realizes that if he doesn’t get it back to him, the other boy is going to get expelled from school.

His mother (Aruna Irani) tells him he’s not allowed to return the book, and he’s torn. He knows deep down what the right thing to do is: return the book. But his moral compass gets the better of him and he flees his home and runs over far away to the city where his friend lives. He doesn’t know where his classmate lives in the city; all he knows is that he has to get this book back to him somehow.

It sounds like such a simple story and on the surface it is. But director Abbas Kiarostami plumbs the story and turns the simple ethical quandary into a fascinating exploration of ageism, growing up, and doing the right thing.

There are moments in the film that are oddly intense. Nothing major is happening, but the roadblocks the character keeps running into make what should on its face be an easy task turn into a scenario where it feels impossible. 

The more frustrating the task becomes, the more we start to root for the task’s success, and the more powerful the film’s storytelling becomes. It gradually becomes almost mesmerizing. 

Ahmed has to start asking him if it’s worth getting the book to his classmate, and may be if it’s not worth finding him. He really struggles with this decision, and the more difficult doing it becomes, the more worrisome it starts to feel that he won’t get the book to his classmate on time.

Every person he comes across proves to be useless. They either provide less than helpful information or just don’t care about an eight year old’s single-minded goal. Everyone doesn’t think much of him or his plight because he’s so young, and they just don’t see the importance of what he’s trying to do. He’s a soft-spoken kid, and he never has the courage speak up over other people and people keep ignoring him. 

The film take a brief detour to show the boy’s grandfather criticize the youth of the present day. He talks at length with a friend about how kids these days don’t have discipline. But his grandfather’s generation and his parent’s generation are often far too nostalgic or lack the understanding to appreciate the youngest generation. Ahmed is trying to get information about where his friend lives and his grandfather can’t be bothered to listen to him, but instead makes him get cigarettes for him. Then he scolds Ahmed when he comes back empty handed, and this is all despite the fact he already has a pack of cigarettes and doesn’t need anymore. The grandfather thinks he’s teaching him a valuable life lesson, but he’s really getting in the way of his grandson doing something profoundly kind and important. 

The elderly blacksmith that helps Ahmed find his classmate’s house talks about how people are changing their doors. Their switching out their wooden ones, many of which he helped put in place, with stronger iron ones. The blacksmith laments that things are changing. There’s a generational gap between him and the boy.

Eventually Ahmed does find the friend’s house after an arduous day looking. However, he’s too scared by the nighttime noises to follow through. He ends up deeply regretting his decision and feeling sick to his stomach.

The classmate sits in the school-building nervously the next day, and it’s uneasy to sit through. The teacher works his way through checking other student’s homework, and we wonder if Ahmed will show up and save his friend…

The film plays out like a beautiful little short story and as it moves along it proves itself to be an insightful, profound and engrossing fable. 

Grade: A