Secret Ballot

Easily misunderstood masterpiece
This film is easily misunderstood, but even those who do not fully understand it, will enjoy it and find it "sweet", "charming" or "gentle".

The storyline is simple. A box drops out of the sky close to the guardpost on an island in some Islamic country. Half an hour later a small boat appears, a woman gets off and orders the guard to accompany her to go and get votes on ballot day. Why is this easy to misunderstand? Because the film communicates so much in a very simple way.

Firstly, it is a comedy - not the outward belly-laugh kind, but the inward warm-smile kind. Every single situation the two chief characters experience is absurd. Take for instance the scene where there is a red robot in the middle of the desert, without even a clear intersection. Also look out for the ballot agent literally not leaving any stone unturned to find the votes! Where have you ever heard of the ballot box going to the voters, instead of the voters going to the ballot...

This is an excellent movie!
Let's talk about the DVD itself. The only thing special is that you have control of what language to see the subtitles...that's about it...and scene selections.

Now, this movie is so through provoking and powerful. It is about a women who is sent by the government to get people to vote. She has her problems from the moment she steps of the boat with the person who is to escort but she shows herself as a powerful and intelligent woman and simply deals with the matter in that fashion. She is the off to find people to vote. However she find herself dealing with many issues of the people. For exmaple: a group of women come to vote and the man states he will do the voting for them. Instead of getting upset and losing image, she simply explains that every citizen has the right to vote on the own and have their own opinion. Something, we westerners take for granted. She is also confronted by people who are against voting and she finds herself breaking some of the religious rules to try to...

A day on a desert isle
The tranquility of a desert dawn is rudely interrupted by aircraft engines. A parachuted box varies the mundane task of two soldiers watching for smugglers. With the arrival of a boat dispatching a young woman on the beach, nothing will ever be the same. Democracy has arrived on an Iranian island - wearing a chador and sturdy walking shoes.

Few films have started in as low a key as this one. Fewer still have built a story of such intense human realism from such a gentle beginning. The soldier, shocked at the arrival of a woman as the Election Officer, is reluctant to be commandeered as her escort. She has the power of The Law on her side, however. They must tour the island, collecting votes, and return to camp to meet the boat at 5:00 o'clock - "You're ordered to escort me".

The ensuing day is marked by clashes of personality, background, role and purpose. The soldier's job is to catch law-breakers. That covers just about anyone whose behaviour he can't...

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