Film & TV

Iranian Film Festival Review: Rhino Season (Fasle kargadan)

Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s first film after four years in exile is based on the true story of an Iranian Kurdish poet imprisoned for 27 years in Iran.


rhino_season_1Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s first film after four years in exile, Rhino Season is based on the true story of Sadegh Kamangar (pseudonym), an Iranian Kurdish poet imprisoned for 27 years in Iran.

Sahel (Behrouz Vossoughi) and Mina (Monica Bellucci) have everything. In Shah era Iran, he’s a handsome, published poet and she’s the beautiful daughter of a wealthy family. All they need is love but they also have a driver, Akbar Rezai (Yilmaz Erdogan). It turns out to be bad news when Rezai’s disturbingly confused “love” for Mina takes a cruel and unusual turn as the revolution hits Iran. Sahel and Mina are imprisoned for thirty, and ten years respectively.

On release, Sahel learns he was reported dead by his captors; Mina has moved to Istanbul (where much of the film is set, and was shot) with Rezai, and told her children their father is dead.

Almost more disturbing than unjust punishment for artistic reasons is that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Rezai orchestrates a personal vendetta against Sahel and Mina with consuming jealousy, passionate “love”, and a position of power as a high-ranking revolutionary.

Seldom has so little been said to convey so much. Dialogue is scarce, making the performances of veterans Voussoughi and Bellucci that much more impressive; see it for this alone.

The pace of the film, allowing for intricacies and Ghobadi’s attention to detail, may be deemed slow for those who have never re-seen the minutia of the world, as if for the first time. For a man tortured and imprisoned for thirty years, it’s completely believable that he would see things slowly, carefully, hard to digest, and, as if a little too bright. The pure beauty of his poetry from a graceful storied people was almost lost amongst the grim tale; perhaps purposefully to demonstrate the inextricable tragedy of a society self-destructing.

Award winning cinematography, and more metaphors than a sea of grief, it’s as tragic as this type of story can be, but lacking the brilliant and flawless storytelling of a film with similar themes, Incendies (2010).

Nonetheless, impressive sound effects indicating torture without viewing it, the suggestion of Sahel’s car as his new prison in Istanbul, and the unsatisfactory but inevitably tragic ending, make this a must see. Fans of Iranian pop sensation, Arash, will catch a glimpse, but not much more.

Told over thirty years with time jumps, the film tackles some big issues. If a person imprisoned for thirty years for writing poetry isn’t enough of a tragedy, we are also subjected to other very difficult scenes and concepts. I hope the experience has in some way been cathartic for Ghobadi, as the suffering of the director/writer is crystal clear. He says of the film, “I was sad. I was sick. I made this film because I did not want to die.”

Until further notice, I’m going to take that as explanation for the business with the eyelid of the horse.

Reviewed by Gordon Forester

Rating out of 10: 7

Venue: Mercury Cinema
Season: 26 October 2013
Duration: 92 minutes

 

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