Director: Ali Asgari/ Ali Reza Khatami
Year: 2023
Country: Iran
Rating: 8.0
As soon as I finished watching this, I checked
to see if this Iranian film had been shown in its home country. Not surprisingly,
it was banned and one of the directors (the other is a Canadian citizen)
has been banned from traveling. The film did the rounds of the international
festivals and won a number of prizes. This has become common for Iranian
films. Films are made in secret guerilla style and smuggled out of the country
and then the director is banned or arrested. Yet Iranian directors keep doing
it and actors keep appearing though they too are subject to bans or imprisonment.
It is remarkable when you think about it - a society that so fears any criticism
and people willing to pierce the veil of the secrecy and repression.
It is a shame that this film didn't get
played in Iran. I think the people would have loved it as it touches on their
lives in very everyday situations with a very bemused critical eye. I expect
pirated copies have made the rounds. There are nine vignettes within the
film - each running about 8 minutes. Each has two actors - one who is shown
and one whose voice is only heard. The camera is static on that one person
and shot in one continuous take. In all the cases it is about the power dynamic
that runs our lives - one person with power and the other who doesn't. In
many but not all, it is a government official that has the power and a member
of the public who is at their mercy. Low level officials with power are the
worst of all. As these vignettes play out, they build on top of each other
an unnerving mood of quiet repression in every aspect of life. But they are
never heavy, in fact a touch of absurdity overlays many of them.
In the first piece, it is a father who simply
wants to register his newborn son as David. The official says no, not on
the approved list and too foreign and suggests other names that the father
doesn't like. In another a schoolgirl is brought into the principal's office
and asked to explain why a boy dropped her off at school on a motorcycle.
Sadaf has had her car impounded because a traffic camera picked up a photo
of her in her car without a hajib on and showing her head. Farbod wants a
driving license but to get it approved he has to strip and show his tattoos.
Faezh is a 30-year old female sitting for a job interview which gets very
uncomfortable as it goes on delving into her private life and in another
job interview, the man has to show his knowledge of the Koran. The best though
- and likely the closest to the directors heart - is a filmmaker trying to
get his script approved by the censors before he can shoot. This has been
going on for two-years. As the government official criticizes various aspects
of the script from the title to the way the police are portrayed to the plot,
the frustrated director just begins ripping out the pages until there is
practically nothing left. This film was shot in eight days and they clearly
did not get their script approved. These are the everyday slights and humiliations
of life. Of course, Iran is doing much worse - beating, whipping, torturing
and executing people for anything that offends the government.
