''The Cyclist'' () is a 1987

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian sports-drama film written and directed by

Mohsen Makhmalbaf Mohsen Makhmalbaf (, ) (born May 29, 1957) is an Iranian film director, writer, film editor, and producer. He has made more than 20 feature films, won 50 awards, and served as a juror in more than 15 major film festivals. His award-winning films ...

, starring Moharram Zaynalzadeh as Abu Ahmed.

Plot

Nasim, a poor Afghan refugee in Iran, gives a demonstration in his town's square, during which he rides his bicycle without stopping for seven days and seven nights, with the aim of raising money to pay for life-saving surgery for his dying wife. In the end, even after seven days, he continues to pedal endlessly, too fatigued to hear his son's and the crowd's pleas to get off his bicycle. One scholar analyses the film as an

allegory As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...

which depicts the exploitation that Afghan refugees suffer from in Iran and from which they are unable to escape.

Accolades

In 1991 the film won the best narrative film award in the

Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

.Hawaii International Film Festival (1991)

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

References

External links

* 1987 films 1980s sports drama films Films set in Iran Iranian drama films 1980s Persian-language films Films directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf Cycling films Films whose director won the Best Directing Crystal Simorgh 1987 drama films Films whose writer won the Best Screenplay Crystal Simorgh {{1980s-drama-film-stub

Plot

Accolades

See also

References

External links