(Yek tasadof-e sadeh)
Country: IR/FR/LUX/US
Technical: col 103m
Director: Jafar Panahi
Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi
Synopsis:
A garage owner recognises a former interrogator and involves other interested parties before deciding whether or not to bury him alive in the desert.
Review:
Like a cross between Death and the Maiden and Little Miss Sunshine, Panahi's absurdly farcical, yet deadly serious, comedy of errors is of course no conundrum at all: it cannot be right to resort to the same violence as your oppressors, as one character opines relatively early on. However, as the film goes on we realise that its length and wordiness are necessary to build such a shocking indictment of organised state terrorism from such a small sample. Filmed in secret, and when he had just been released from prison, the film is a testament to the director's extraordinary voice of protest 'in plain sight', which ranks with the 2026 demonstrations for bravery.
(Yek tasadof-e sadeh)
Country: IR/FR/LUX/US
Technical: col 103m
Director: Jafar Panahi
Cast: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi
Synopsis:
A garage owner recognises a former interrogator and involves other interested parties before deciding whether or not to bury him alive in the desert.
Review:
Like a cross between Death and the Maiden and Little Miss Sunshine, Panahi's absurdly farcical, yet deadly serious, comedy of errors is of course no conundrum at all: it cannot be right to resort to the same violence as your oppressors, as one character opines relatively early on. However, as the film goes on we realise that its length and wordiness are necessary to build such a shocking indictment of organised state terrorism from such a small sample. Filmed in secret, and when he had just been released from prison, the film is a testament to the director's extraordinary voice of protest 'in plain sight', which ranks with the 2026 demonstrations for bravery.
