Selection Review
'Another Birth' Review
By CINE 21 - Le Hong Lam(Vietnam)
Another Birth (original title: Tavalodi Digar) is a 66-minute feature from Tajikistan, written, produced, directed by, and co-starring Isabelle Kalandar. Premiering in 2024, this quiet and melancholic film unfolds like a lyrical poem, narrated through the eyes of an 8-year-old girl named Parastu - an innocent, sensitive soul living in a remote mountainous village in Badakhshan. Parastu’s wide, observant eyes capture a world steeped in silence and sorrow: her lonely mother, her ailing grandfather nearing death, and the elusive sense of absence that hangs over her home. One night, curled up beside her mother, she asks, “Can someone die from sadness?” Her mother replies, “Yes, people can wither away from grief.” When Parastu asks what “wither” means, her mother answers, “It’s when life no longer has any taste,” and urges her to sleep, calling the question senseless. Haunted by the impending loss of her grandfather, Parastu sets out to find the father she has never met, hoping to bring him back and somehow save her grandfather. Accompanied by her friend Guliston, the two girls embark on a journey across treacherous landscapes, where they encounter a wise man, a mythical Pari (a fairy like being from Persian folklore), ghostly rivers, and graves tucked in forgotten corners of the earth. Their quest becomes a poetic metaphor for childhood’s boundless belief and the longing for connection. With its deliberately slow pacing and meditative rhythm, Another Birth explores early loss, premature maturity, longing, grief, and the search for emotional roots. The girl’s desperate journey to find her father becomes a symbolic confrontation with her grandfather’s spiritual decline and her mother’s hidden sorrow. Kalandar’s directorial style is measured and serene, weaving a visual tapestry of static, poetic, and exquisitely composed frames. Seen entirely through Parastu’s gaze, the film blends grounded realism with a surreal, dreamlike sensibility. In at least three key moments - once at the beginning and twice at the end - Kalandar’s camera lingers on Parastu watching her mother from a distance. These scenes are more than childhood curiosity they are windows into the girl's attempts to imagine the inner world of a woman she loves deeply but cannot yet comprehend. The film’s title, Another Birth (Tavalodi Digar), is borrowed from a landmark poem by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad, two of whose poems are recited in the film. The final frame includes a dedication: “In Memory of Forugh Farrokhzad.” Published in 1964, Farrokhzad’s Another Birth is one of her most celebrated works, a poetic expression of existential longing and feminist awakening. In this context, “birth” refers not merely to physical life, but to a spiritual renewal - an inner rebirth after grief and rupture. Kalandar captures this beautifully in the film’s closing shot, where silence speaks louder than any words.
