Search - Fireworks Wednesday on DVD

A young Iranian woman is about to be married ... an incendia

Nathan Andersen | Florida | 03/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Rouhi is engaged and very much in love, and goes to work as a maid in the house of a couple on the verge of a meltdown. The wife is a nervous and suspicious wreck, and the messy house and broken window confirm that this is not a scene of domestic tranquility. Throughout the day, Rouhi becomes increasingly involved in the lives of the wife, her husband and their child, and the woman who the wife suspects of being her husband's mistress. She takes sides and later regrets it; she is used as a pawn in an elaborate contest between the husband and wife. Along the way she must begin to wonder about her own dreams of a happy ever after.

The film takes place on the Wednesday prior to the Iranian New Year, when according to tradition there is a fireworks celebration in the streets. One of the most engaging and frightening scenes occurs as the husband drives Rouhi home through streets ablaze and abuzz with explosions, rockets, bonfires. The sounds, lights and explosions that surround them as they speed through the streets, avoiding flames, mirrors the volatility of the marriage -- and accelerates the tension within the car, given the husband's suspicion that Rouhi may have betrayed him to his wife.

Fireworks Wednesday is an honest and subtle and provocative film that takes a very simple and utterly believable story and lets a set of complicated issues weave in and through it effortlessly. A very intriguing portrait of life in Tehran, with exceptionally delicate and convincing performances, and masterful direction that is able to take a scene from everyday life and render it extremely interesting and unsettling and suspenseful."

A Rare Window into the Daily Lives of Families Far Away

David Crumm | Canton, Michigan | 05/30/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Fireworks Wednesday" is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of men and women living in contemporary Iran. It's fiction, but it's a compelling and honest contemporary story of an idealistic young woman from a working-class background who is on the verge of getting married -- and takes on a job as a cleaning woman for an up-scale family to make some extra money.

She shows up in the midst of disaster. The husband seems to be a brute, there's broken glass strewn across the floor and the man's wife shows up soon -- full of upper-class biases and in the midst of an emotional crisis over her husband's behavior. It's not entirely clear, at first, what has happened in the household -- but watching this drama is an amazing window in the lives of everyday Iranian families.

For Americans, one of the enormous challenges in our world today is seeing the humanity in distant nations -- especially nations like Iran with which our nation's leaders seem to be crossing swords. Spending a couple of hours with this Iranian melodrama puts sympathetic human faces on people half a world away. And that's an important thing in times of global tension.

This is well-written drama with sophisticated characters and a plot that keeps us guessing along the way -- whether we see ourselves in the roles of the older upper-class couple struggling to come to terms with an explosive marriage or we see the world through the eyes of the idealistic young woman about to get married."