Secret Ballot

2001 Comedy

This comedy follows a determined female election official (Nassim Abdi) and the grumpy soldier (Cyrus Abidi) assigned to escort her as she tries to collect votes on a remote Iranian island. The soldier, one of two assigned to stand guard on the island, is aghast at the thought of a woman giving him orders, and complains constantly. She is just as stubborn in her determination to wring every vote out of an island inhabited almost entirely by illiterate shepherds and smugglers who would rather that the government not even know that they exist at all. Director Babak Payami's film is an extended battle of the sexes that takes a few digs at the Iranian political process along the way.

Director: Babak Payami

Starring: Nassim Abdi, Cyrus Abidi, Youssef Habashi, Farrokh Shojaii, Gholbahar Janghali

Reviews

  • Payami's gentle comedy captures a subtle range of human feelings through a quietly inventive visual style that embodies the best life-affirming tendencies of modern Iranian film.

    David Sterritt - Christian Science Monitor

    19 January 2013

  • Secret Ballot, which has a rich, spare score by Michael Galasso that blends Eastern and Western motifs, is funny, provocative, well-paced and leaves a memorable bittersweet aftertaste.

    Kevin Thomas - Los Angeles Times

    19 January 2013

  • As much as any earnest historical drama, Secret Ballot serves as an eloquent argument for civic life, showing its human elements to be no less flawed for being so necessary.

    Ann Hornaday - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

  • Charms with its amalgam of absurdity, optimism, humor, and avuncular regard for the million small daily chores, rituals, suspicions, and courtesies of dwellers on even the sparsest spots on earth.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    19 January 2013

  • A psychic journey deep into the very fabric of Iranian (and by extension, all) life.

    Desson Thomson - The Washington Post

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Babak Payami

    London Film Festival (2001)

  • Best Feature Film

    Newport International Film Festival (2002)

  • Democracy

    Political Film Society (2003)

     
  • Babak Payami

    Rotterdam International Film Festival (2002)

  • Babak Payami

    São Paulo International Film Festival (2001)