All good film festivals include a retrospective piece. The Iranian Film Festival brought us Downpour, first released in 1972.
Martin Scorcese’s World Cinema Foundation spent over 1,500 hours restoring the only existing print owned by the great Iranian writer/director, Bahram Beyzaie.
Downpour is Beyzaie’s extraordinary first feature, a study of which should be compulsory for all students of film.
Mr Hekmati (Parviz Fanizadeh) is a new-to-town schoolteacher who falls for Atefeh (Parvaneh Massoumi), the sister of his student. She is affianced to moustachioed butcher Rahim (Manuchehr Farid), out of obligation and societal pressures.
A rumour starts, as rumours do; the whole town’s talking about the Hekmati/Atefeh love affair that hasn’t even commenced.
Rahim repeatedly beats up Hekmati before they settle things the manly way; they get legless. Post bonding experience, the mates compete for Atefeh (and her amazing cheekbones), who struggles to look after her very aged mother and much younger brother (take a leap with fertility math here).
Noteworthy performances are from Jamshid Layegh as the compelling fellow teacher and confidant, and legendary Iranian actor Mohamad Ali Keshavarz as the nose-picking headmaster everyone loves to hate.
Some exceptional scenes include the fight between the two drunken suitors. It is one of the best “that’s not a knife, this is a knife” scenes in cinematic history. Also, Hekmati accepting the adulation of his students in the hall he’d just finished renovating, was surely watched by Roberto Benigni just before the 1999 Oscars.
The crowning highlight was the realisation scene where Hekmati and Atefeh are sitting alone on a bench, “…away from intruding eyes”. He is about to tell her he isn’t in love with her (only to realise he is). The camera pulls back to reveal every kid in town hiding in the trees behind them eagerly awaiting the outcome the audience is hoping for.
Of interest were the recurring trio of musicians walking the street ominously, and the conspirator in me saw them not as musicians blindly marching, but all seeing pre-revolutionary SAVAK agents. You decide.
Personally, I could have done without the pet cockroach scene (when I grow up I want to be a psychopath), but in context, I guess the Humane Association were busy that day and I hear bullied kids do worse things to cope.
Beyzaie’s attention to detail and painstakingly shot scenes match a sound track, at times frenetic, to a steady story. The multi-dimensional characters set against the hapless, unlikely hero Hekmati, and the beautiful, but torn Atefeh, make for a very interesting film with the feel of an ancient fable.
Credit-worthy are the abundance of natural children, and the work of the focus puller, who surely retired hurt at the wrap.
Black and white, in Farsi with original English subtitles, the pace is glacially slow in parts, particularly the non-Hollywood ending. It is obviously from a different era, but one well worth visiting.
Reviewed by Gordon Forester
Rating out of 10: 8
Venue: Mercury Cinema
Season: 26 October 2013
Duration: 128 minutes
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