Before the Storm
(Före stormen)
With Per Graffman, Emil Odepark, Maria Lundqvist.
Sweden, 2000, 35mm, color, 106 min.
Swedish with English subtitles.
Exploring the unexpected ways in which the past can haunt in a world rife with incompatible moralities, Before the Storm is an emotionally loaded, accomplished feature debut from Reza Parsa, an Iranian-born director based in Sweden for the past twenty years. Parsa employs thriller elements to tell two parallel stories. Ali is a taxi driver of Middle Eastern origin living in provincial Sweden who has finally achieved an ideal of domestic happiness with his wife Clara and daughters Sara and Jenny. Twelve-year-old Leo is a boy in Sara’s class with a secret crush on her and a problem with an older bully who torments him. The taxi driver’s nightmare starts when shadows from his past catch up with him. Progressively, the stories of Ali and Leo intertwine, exploring how each protagonist resists oppression in his own way. Winner of the Silver Shell at the San Sebastian Film Festival.