Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 20, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of Mohsen Makhmalbaf: The Poetic Trilogy.

Younger readers may not know the extremes some of us more “mature” film lovers used to have to go to enjoy international cinema. Typically in the days before home media (and frankly for a good long while after even things like laserdiscs and VHS tapes had been introduced), it used to be a requirement to scout newspaper ads for “coming attractions” at the local so-called Art House, where frequently any given film from overseas might only play for a night or two. One of the glories of the Blu-ray era, and of Arrow’s releases in particular, is the availability of rarer items from countries whose film industry has not been overly lionized, at least on this side of the pond. That’s the commendable case with The Poetic Trilogy, a really arresting set of three films from Iranian writer and director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. Two of the films in this set, 1996’s Gabbeh and 1998’s The Silence, are dramatic narratives that have a kind of whimsical, folkloristic quality to them. While perhaps fictionalized to a degree, 2012’s The Gardener is more of a documentary, though it addresses some of the same religious aspects that are at least subliminally presented in the earlier two films.

“Gabbeh” means “carpet” in Farsi, and as Godfrey Cheshire discusses in his interesting commentary included on this disc as a supplement, carpets in Iranian tradition often tell a “story” courtesy of illustrations that woven into the fabric. One of the first images in this film is of just such a carpet, which is not “flying” a la Aladdin, but is instead floating down a stream. An elderly couple is then shown bantering about who will wash their carpet, and it’s at this point that the magical realism of Gabbeh becomes apparent, since one of two characters seen on the carpet kind of miraculously appears. She is in fact “Gabbeh” (Shaghayeh Djodat), and she begins to weave a tale of seemingly unconsummated love with her partner seen in the carpet illustration, a dashing young horseman.

Gabbeh is a short film that is long on style and especially color (its advertising campaign evidently emphasized that colorful aspect, from what I’ve been to discern), but a bit lackluster in the narrative department. There’s a connection between Gabbeh (the character, that is), her would be lover, and the elderly couple involved in the carpet washing escapade, but even that is not enough to really propel the story into the stratosphere. Instead, Gabbeh plays very much like a fairy tale, with a kind of almost melancholic take on “happily ever after”. There are some sidebars to this story that could have easily been jettisoned, but as an evocative and exotic feeling example of Iranian myth and/or legend, it’s really quite interesting a lot of the time.

Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All three films in The Poetic Trilogy are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1 (Gabbeh and The Silence) and 1.78:1 (The Gardener). Arrow's insert booklet contains the following information on the transfers:

Gabbeh and The Silence were exclusively restored by Arrow Films and are presented in their original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono sound. For Gabbeh, a 35mm internegative was scanned on an Arriscan in 2K resolution, and for The Silence, a 35mm interpositive was scanned on an Arriscan in 2K resolution. All film treatment and scanning was completed at Eclair in Paris. The films were graded and restored at Dragon DI, Wales. Picture grading was completed on a Pablo Rio System and restoration was completed using PFClean and Revival software. The original audio mixes were remastered from the optical sound negatives. All materials for these restorations were made available from MK2.

The Gardener is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 with stereo audio. The master was prepared in High Definition by Makhmalbaf Film House and delivered to Arrow Films.

As can probably be made out in the screenshots accompanying this review, Gabbeh is an at times astoundingly colorful feature, and the blues especially in this transfer are unbelievably vivid at times. There's still a rather surprising (to me, anyway) amount of damage that's on display throughout this presentation, though it's typically rather small things like momentary nicks and/or scratches (some of which can be made out in a couple of the screenshots like number 6 if you put your "eagle eyes" on). A lot of the film is pretty soft looking, some of which I suspect is intention, especially with regard to the "magical" appearances of Gabbeh. Detail levels are generally very good, and some of the outdoor scenes feature excellent depth of field.

Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Gabbeh features an LPCM mono track that may not set audiophiles' hearts on fire, but which more than adequately delivers the film's dialogue and ambient environmental effects without any problems. The film actually has quite a bit of environmental effects like breezes rustling through fields or streams gently gurgling over rocks, and everything sounds natural, if understandably narrow. There are no problems with distortion or other annoyances.

Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged this release with the two "narrative" films on one disc, and the "documentary" on the other. Therefore, the discs may have supplementary material that is more generalist in nature or not specifically devoted to one particular film.

Disc One (Gabbeh and The Silence)

• Audio Commentary on Gabbeh by critic Godfrey Cheshire


• Original Trailers

  Gabbeh US Trailer (1080p; 1:19)

  Gabbeh French Trailer (1080p; 1:17)

  The Silence French Trailer (1080p; 1:02)

• Stills Gallery

  Gabbeh (1080p; 2:40)

  The Silence (1080p; 2:50)

Disc Two (The Gardener)

• Poetry in Motion: An Interview with Mohsen Makhmalbaf (1080p; 1:00:36) is a well done interview conducted by Jonathan Romney covering Makhmalbaf's career in general while also touching on these films.


• Mohsen with Closed Eyes (1080i; 16:34) is listed as "an imaginatively filmed archival interview with Makhmalbaf on The Silence", but while the content is definitely interesting, the "imaginatively filmed" part boils down to Makhmalbaf speaking with his eyes closed.


• Original Trailer (1080p; 4:21)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 3:50)

Gabbeh Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gabbeh offers such a jaw dropping visual aesthetic that it's pretty easy to overlook some of its other deficits. There's also a really appealing folkoristic quality to this tale that helps to bring Iranian culture, or at least Makhmalbaf's version of this particular tribal story, that should appeal to those with an interest in world religions or legends from other cultures. Technical merits are generally solid, and with caveats noted, Gabbeh comes Recommended.