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The gentle, understated humor that has come to mark Iranian cinema delights in a few bizarre scenes—like when a military jeep carrying the election official stops before a stop light in the middle of nowhere, waiting for it to turn green. And you cannot help but resonate with an old man at a solar energy facility who's disappointed by politicians and will only vote for God.

Content: Rated G. Parents might use it to discuss freedom and democracy with their children.

The Tale of the Three Lost Jewels

(Palestine, 1994)

Yusef is a 12-year-old Palestinian boy with a big-time crush on Aida, a fetching Gypsy girl. To win her love he must find her grandmother's lost jewels, so the love-smitten Yusef sets off on a quest that is both mystical and realistic. Yusef's father is in prison and his brother is wanted by the Israeli army. He goes about his childish pursuit while the Intifada rages around him. He is a young boy for whom the war with the Israelis is an abstract reality. He knows that his people hate the Jews and vice versa, but that reality is not what drives him. He simply tries to ignore it by imagining himself in the sunny Palestinian countryside, free from the rigors of a war that will soon claim his allegiance. He imagines himself with the beautiful and aloof Aida, in a world apart.

While The Tale of the Three Lost Jewels was filmed during the Intifada uprising, it is not an overtly political film. It is about a simple boy and his simple longings. It provides a starting place for a discussion of Palestinian life.

Content: Suitable for all ages

Taste of Cherry

(Iran, 1997)

Famous Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami is never in a hurry, especially when pursuing timeless questions such as Why should we keep on living? against the backdrop of lazy scenery. The slow-moving Taste of Cherry follows the a middle-aged man driving around the hilly countryside outside Teheran in search of someone to bury his body after he commits suicide. He offers a hefty sum for the help, but most people he approaches turn down his creepy offer. Eventually, he runs into an old taxidermist who had once tried to commit suicide and has since found the reason to live. He takes the job, but tries to dissuade the despondent man. "Every problem has its solution," the taxidermist tells him. "You want to give up the taste of cherries?" Cherries themselves surely are reason enough to live, but this profound film can provide fodder for discussion of reasons that transcend the world we perceive with our senses.

Content: The film is not rated and, except for brief vulgarities, has no objectionable material.

The Wind Will Carry Us

(Iran, 1999)

"Observing nature is better than playing backgammon or doing nothing," advises a doctor in The Wind Will Carry Us. And director Abbas Kiarostami—much like in his other masterpiece A Taste of Cherry—provides our eyes with plenty of stunning nature to observe.

The broad landscape of hills, valleys and contorted trees surrounding a Kurdish village allows us much breathing and thinking space. To this quiet place arrives a film crew, waiting for a 100-year-old woman to die in order to document her funeral. In one of his trademark innovations, Kiarostami keeps several characters completely off camera. We never see—but sometimes hear—the old woman and most of the film crew. In the same way, not all the lessons that the "engineer" from the crew learns during his wait are obvious. But somehow, a trip to the place where time seems to have stopped leaves him, and us, delighted.

Content: Nothing in this film is objectionable.

Next week: The best of the rest of the world.

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