While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

My God, I could make a better movie if I just focused a camera on my *lawn* for two hours!! This movie makes "Solaris" (the supposed Russian "answer" to 2001...NOT!) look like "Fast and the Furious!!!" (Speaking strictly of attention-getting ability and excitement level, of course). I saw no evidence that the dullard soldier gained any kind of "insight" whatsoever! He was basically Forrest Gump's younger, dumber, brother.The final scene was reminiscent of "Sling Blade." The moron just sits and stares, none the wiser, still an idiot."Spoiler??" There was nothing to *spoil* but I checked the box just in case.Maybe Iran thinks they can show "Fundamentalist Islam with a Happy Face" but one look at the woman in a black head covering and cape when it's probably *90 Degrees* outside tells you all you need to know.By the way, just what WERE the two soldiers "guarding" against? Invasion, perhaps from the "Great Satan?" One burst from a 20mm chain gun and they'd be so much falafel.I need a drink! :>)

After sitting through this film, I have to wonder if the many accolades and awards this movie has received are a case of the Emperor's New Clothes; i.e., it's Iranian, so it must be good no matter what it really looks like. The film plods along at an agonizingly slow pace. Many shots are several minutes in length with little movement. But instead of making a point, these scenes just feel as if the Director was trying to find a way to stretch out the film. (The filmaker's equivalent of using 14 point font on a term paper.) At one point a scene with significance for future scenes is shot from such a distance that the people are mere specks and you are left spending the next ten minutes trying to figure the major plot hole this long distance scene just created.Nearly all the scenes amount to obvious, and vaguely preachy metaphors about the importance of voting. Instead of letting a scene speak for itself, the woman vote collector has to make some preachy statement every time. Even more grating, the soldier accompanying the vote collector speaks ever single line in a monotone as if he is reading his lines off a cue card. This film is billed as a comedy, yet there is nothing remotely funny in the 100 minutes of the film.Perhaps much of the humor and nuances of language are lost in a poor translation from Farsi. However, after seeing and being highly impressed by "Kandahar", I tend to think this is just not a good film.Save your money and 100 minutes of your life for something more worthwhile than this film.

This is perhaps the fourth or fifth Iranian film I've seen and they areall have been quite poignant and... different. I must admit I wasinitially curious as to the content and tone knowing that this is avery supressed and controlled culture -- but once again, withSecret Ballot , here is a film that takes a very ordinary situation andbrings great humor and pathos to it. I know some reviewers takeissue with the director's propensity for long shots where the actionis taking place almost out of your view (like the arrest of thesmugglers on their boat) and keeping the camera in place whenthe actors leave or, have not entered that space as of yet ,--but Ifind these techniques somehow consistent with the rhythm andpace of the film. I enjoyed it and recommend it as I do most foreignfilms that offer an insight into a culture and a people...bycomparison with most of the Hollywood dribble that passes for"entertainment."

Iranian films proceeds to work within the system altogether with the amount of system attacks that might be aloud in that country. That means that the directors have to work with small means. You've got to be attentive as audience, which is rather easy, because the tempo is slow.This is the story of a female election official, who tries to make the reluctant citizens on a small Iranian island to go voting. It isn't easy in a society there someone wants to vote for God and the women aren't aloud to look on photographs of male candidates. There are few real characters here, mainly types, and that also goes for the election official and her accompanying soldier. The most interesting question is what kind of society Iran really is, when you have to be so careful in your films.