Director Saeed Roustayi. Cast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Saeed Poursamimi, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Payman Maadi. 165 min. Drama.
- What's ingenious about this absorbing, heart-breaking, emotional rollercoaster of a social drama, is how it predated and predicted the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement. An old godfather-wannabe is making every effort (even donating his life savings) to become his family's succeeding patriarch; his four sons (even the most pragmatic one) struggle to keep their abusive father happy and maintain the status quo; and his daughter, Leila, as the sole voice of logic, tries to keep the family's financial head above water by opposing every rotten element at core of this institution. Without spoiling anything, let's just say this clash of modernism and traditionalism shakes the film (and the world, by women) in the form of ... a slap.
- Many have described this last year's Cannes Film Festival award winner as symbolic of Iran's current sociopolitical figures and groups, namely: the old father representing Iran's Supreme Leader; the brothers each representing the struggling middle class, the forever-doomed lower class, and the educated elite; and Leila, the female uprising, already upending the country's social and political strata. This metaphor is most beautifully pictured in an ending scene, with young girls entering a "birthday" party, the same time as another social class "dies".
- Numerous memorable, thought-provoking quotes: "They just teach us to think, not how to think"; "I'm afraid of feeling happy"; "We're living based on dead people's decisions"; "Yes, Father, the [Trump] tweet was even more destructing than a bomb"; ...
- Earth-shattering performances by Saeed Poursamimi (as the father), and of course, the great Taraneh Alidoosti (as Leila). This is a film whose characters, moments and concepts you'll be thinking about for days. Remember director Roustayi's name - you will hear it more in the future.
MoGo's rating: 9/10
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