The Peddler (1987) poster
1987 · drama · iranian

The Peddler

Directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf1h 30m1987
ElsewhereIMDb6.9422TMDB6.611
  • sombre
  • measured
  • intense
  • bleak
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Sombre, measured, measured drama / iranian, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

The movie consists of three episodes that explore the lives of poor and desperate in Iran. In episode one, a very poor couple with many crippled children abandon their newly born baby in hopes that it will have a better future. In the second episode, a mentally impaired and isolated young man tries to take care of his senile mother who is almost dead. In the third episode, a cowardly and desperate peddler tries to escape from his boss.

Our read · The Peddler (1987) reads as a sombre, measured, inventive drama · iranian entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of The Peddler

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want raw Iranian trilogy portraits of poverty, disability, and human desperation.

ends unsettlingit leaves you shakenmeditativegrips by minute 6attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upchild peril

Skip it tonightSkip if abandoned children or grim social realism will leave you wrecked.

If The Peddler is your film
The Cyclist (1989)
Makhmalbaf following one desperate man's extreme effort for family
(if unrelenting poverty endurance feels too bleak)
Where Is My Friend's House? (1987)
child's ethical journey through Iranian rural life and adults
(if gentler child perspective softens the edge)
Close-Up (1990)
Kiarostami weaving real desperation and cinema in Iran
(if meta documentary elements confuse or distance)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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