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Reviews Counted:16
Fresh:14
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Jul 27, 2007 Limited
Synopsis: Youssef, a blind University professor, is suddenly faced with a fatal disease and must undergo a treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before? --© Official Site
Starring: Parviz Parastui, Mohammad Amir Naji, Mahmoud Behraznia
Director: Majid Majidi
Perhaps Majidi intended wry commentary and observation of the dubious influences of Western culture on Iran, where outside scientific, technological and material advances impart a knowledge that is not necessarily likewise wisdom, enlightenment or virtue.
Teeters on the edge of overwrought melodrama but is saved by the convincing performance of Parvis Parastui.
This is powerful stuff.
Iranian director Majid Majidi... takes his place alongside Robert Bresson as a master of sacred cinema. His Iran is a place of natural beauty so intense that even the sightless can experience its splendor.
Children of Heaven won me over with its slow gentle build and big sweet heart. I was expecting more of the same with Willow Tree. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
Majidi infuses his simple yet eloquent tale with stunning imagery designed to make us relate to Youssef's reawakening.
Top CriticA spiritual masterpiece on gratitude, transformation and surrender to God by the gifted Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi. Rumi would love it!
Anchored by Parastui’s luminous, heartfelt performance, [director] Majidi also revels in the joy of sight, especially as manifested in the beauty and lovely colors of nature. The Willow Tree is a powerful and ultimately optimistic movie.
A perfectly worked out story and a marvelous new step forward for Iranian director Majid Majidi. It is also, in some ways, yet another step forward for his country's cinema, a national art that grows more accomplished every year.
Top CriticExplicitly religious, intensely poetic meditations, filled with recurrent symbols and suffused with a spirit of divine apprehension. [It is] sad beyond measure.
Top CriticThe filmmaker compels us to see in the dark, to recognize beauty in the absence of color and light.
A beautiful, strange film, deeply moving and no surprise from [director] Majidi.
Top CriticA beautiful film, both simple and profound, which suggests that bargaining with God is a bad idea in all cultural traditions.
Top CriticThe film has its flaws, but [director Majidi's] gift for giving a cinematic texture to the emotional senses validates his work as a visionary.
A series of glistening tone poems.
Top CriticThe film is dignified by Parvis Parastui's memorable performance, which partially offsets Majidi's symbolic heavywork.
September 01, 2007:
A vividly conceived sensual, emotional and philosophical journey touching on our relation to human existence and its joys and wonders, but tempered by the testing of one's moral responsibility and intimate, undeniable connection to the world around us. 
More...
September 01, 2007:
Perhaps Majidi intended wry commentary and observation of the dubious influences of Western culture on Iran, where outside scientific, technological and material advances impart a knowledge that is not necessarily likewise wisdom, enlightenment or virtue.
More...
August 02, 2007:
Bourne Is Certified Fresh; Hot Rod Hits the Skids; Bratz is Grade-Z; El Cantante Hits A Flat Note
This week at the movies, we got amnesiac spies (The Bourne Ultimatum, starring Matt Damon and Julia Stiles), loser daredevils (Hot Rod, with Andy Samberg and Isla Fisher), salsa... More...
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