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All Flixster 3.5 Stars (115) Want To See 85 Not Interested 674
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Plot: This gentle, low-key comedy follows a female civil servant of an Islamic country (presumably Iran, but specifics aren't given) as she travels around a sparsely populated island, trying to get the inha...( read more read more... )bitants to vote on election day. Her efforts are both helped and hindered by the reluctant soldier who has been assigned to accompany her--but far more significant hurdles are language barriers, deep-seated gender prejudices, and mechanical breakdowns. The civil servant struggles to maintain her faith in democratic processes in the face of indifference, antagonism, and absurdity. When someone tells her, "Voting doesn't catch fish," she has no reply, yet perseveres in her attempt to make the world better. Secret Ballot is slow-paced, but the movie's rhythms suit the world it depicts. Nassim Abdi, as the civil servant, gives a wonderfully engaging performance; her innocent, open face captures both the humor and the sadness in her struggle. --Bret Fetzer

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Recent Reviews

  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    July 30, 2007
    An interesting film that follows one woman that is commissioned to seek out the inhabitants of an Iranian island to gain votes in an election that takes place once every four years. An annoyed military escort gains an unexpected level of respect for the woman in the end. Slow and mildly funny though presents real life struggles.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 25, 2007
    A soldier stationed on a deserted beach wakes up and discovers that it's not going to be an ordinary day: there are the elections, but nobody seems to know anything about them. Just as an electoral urn is being parachuted from the sky, a young woman disembarks on the beach. To the soldier's bafflement, it turns out that she is in charge of the mobile electoral seat and voting on the islands; therefore the soldier is obliged to obey her orders and escort her with his rifle and army jeep across the desert, where the woman obstinately intends to collect the votes. During the day, stressed by a series of absurd events, the two learn to get to know each other. At sunset, when the young woman leaves, the man realizes that the secret vote contained much more than he had ever imagined.
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 17, 2006
    Lovers of sex, violence and action need not apply. This movie is a series of vignettes about pretty much every scenario that could face a civil servant in an election in Iran with some poignant metaphor.

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Details

  • Rated: (G)
  • Directed by: Babak Payami
  • Genres: Art House & International, Comedy
  • Released: August 9, 2002
  • DVD Released: January 7, 2003

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