Bargaining, a lost art form here, often involves finding a product defect, no matter how small, and blowing it out of proportion in order to win a discount on its price. The White Balloon illustrates this in scenes involving a tailor and a dissatisfied customer who claims his new shirts make his head look too small. Later the tailor is seen complaining and gesticulating to his friends about the nerve of that customer to complain. Such aggrandizing of minor events into travesties is a common conversational technique. While child actors dominate this film, The White Balloon is not intended exclusively for young audiences.
Children are safe subjects for movies governed by restrictive Islamic oversight.
Women who may be physically attractive to audience members are only shown in hejab and do not get much film time. Farsi speakers may recognize the variety of accents used by characters, such as the Afghani balloon-seller and the old Polish woman who helps Razieh find her lost money. At the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, The White Balloon won the Camera d'Or and the International Critics' Prize. While not an extraordinary film, it will give many Americans their first glimpse of life as it really is lived by many Iranians today. Acronyms run rampant and eponyms crouch in the most unlikely places.