Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.
This wonderful motion picture is the story of a young Iranian girl’s search for the perfect goldfish to release in her pond to encourage good luck in the New Year. However, when she loses the money her mother has given her, young Razieh and her brother seek their fortunes in modern day Tehran. This visually ravishing contemporary retelling of “The Red Balloon”, reveals much about the culture of the Muslim world. By filming through a child’s eyes, director Jafar Panahi reveals a world of incidental cruelty, a world which often rushes by too fast to listen to the desires of children. There is a darkness in “The White Balloon”, not explicit, but a sadness about the opportunities adults lose in understanding the world of their child. As in all the best fairy-tales, this is a profoundly humane story. The screenplay is by acclaimed director Abbas Kiarostami. Winner of the Camera D’Or at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
Content notification
Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.
Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.
How to watch
Stream, rent or buy via
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
306885
Language
Arabic
Audience classification
G
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Motion pictures - Awards
Childrens Films → Children 12+
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)
MOV file ProRes4444; Digital Preservation Master - overscan
MPEG-4 Digital File; ACMI Digital Access Copy - overscan