TEHRAN – The cinematheque of the Iranian Artists Forum will be reviewing “Tokyo Sonata” by Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa on Monday. A screening of the 2008 drama, which will begin in the Shahnaz Hall of the forum at 5 pm, will be followed by a review session, during which Iranian critic Hossein Eidizadeh will discuss the film. The screening is part of the special program in progress since April 11 to review contemporary Japanese cinema.The film, which brought Kurosawa the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at the 2008 Cannes, tells the story of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family, in which the father loses his job and conceals the truth.

The eldest son in college hardly ever returns home.

The youngest takes piano lessons without telling his parents.

The mother, who knows she is supposed to keep the family together, can’t find the will to do so.The film also won the grand jury prize at the Chicago International Film Festival.Roger Ebert, a critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote about the film, “It simply shows how lives torn apart by financial emergencies can be revealed as being damaged all along.

Unemployment is the catalyst -- an unspoken reality that makes everyone in the family angrier than they already are.

All of the performances have perfect pitch; the young son engages us in the same way as the hero of Truffaut’s ‘The 400 Blows’.”He also said, “Dramatic events occur that demonstrate how a routine, once broken, cannot easily be repaired.”“Kurosawa observes the agony of unemployment in Japan, which, like the United States, has been beset by outsourcing to cheaper labor pools,” Ebert noted.Photo: A poster for a review session of Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s drama “Tokyo Sonata” at the Iranian Artists Forum in Tehran. MMS/YAW