REVIEWS UN CERTAIN REGARD
Iran. 2011. 104mins Director/screenplay/ producer/editor/ cinematography Mohammad Rasoulof International sales Fortissimo (outside France),
www.fortissimo.nl Main cast Leyla Zareh, Fereshteh Sadreorafai, Shahab Hosseini, Roya Teymourian
Goodbye REVIEWEDBY LEE MARSHALL
Shot in semi-clandestine conditions in Tehran in the winter of 2010-11 by Iranian film-maker Moham- mad Rasoulof, who together with colleague Jafar Panahi is serving a six-year jail sentence for ‘propa- gandising against the regime’, Goodbye (Be Omid E Didar) is a sombre and courageous portrait of the open prison that present-day Iran has become. Shot with a careful eye for colour, light and
framing, this story of a politically suspect female lawyer doggedly trying to secure the visa that will allow her to leave Iran creates beauty out of des- peration, but it is a dour kind of beauty, as befits a film which refuses to give much space to luxuries such as hope or optimism.
The Island BY LISA NESSELSON
A cross-cultural Parisian couple — and, by exten- sion, the audience — get way, way more than they bargained for when they take a few days’ holiday elsewhere in Europe in The Island. Producer- writer-director Kamen Kalev (Eastern Plays) sends all concerned on a multi-pronged journey, a trippy triptych whose twists are impossible to anticipate. Viewers who like surprises should not read syn-
opses or reviews, but just bring an open mind and a sturdy attention span into the cinema. The eclec- tically cast, fearlessly ambitious and more than a little nutty venture will no doubt divide viewers into “You’ve got to be kidding” and “Whoah — that was cool!” camps, but this is a conversation starter, even if it consists of “What was that?” Sophie (Casta) and Daneel (Lindhardt) have
been a couple for four years. They are hard-work- ing citizens with good jobs, and their carnal con- nection is palpable. Some might find it surprising that a natural beauty in Casta’s league would set up house with a fellow who here is made to look like the love child of Willem Dafoe and Matthew Brod- erick, but these two are hot for each other. It is their verbal communication that needs improvement. Daneel’s on edge and distracted, due to his
stressful corporate job. Sophie wants a vacation. He leaves the destination and travel arrangements up to her. When they get to the airport in Paris and Daneel learns she has booked a flight to Bulgaria, he freaks out, categorically refusing to go — but relents finally.
n 20 Screen International at the Cannes Film Festival May 17, 2011 Visually, and in its rich sound design, the film
betrays none of the presumably difficult condi- tions of the shoot: it is a fully formed contempo- rary screen tragedy, and a worthy addition to an oeuvre which includes two much more allusively allegorical films about Iran, The White Meadows (2009) and Iron Island (2005). But Goodbye is also a slow-moving and rather
bleak film which demands a certain resilience of its audience. A couple of days before the film’s Cannes premiere (it was a surprise late addition to Un Certain Regard), it was announced Fortissimo would be partnering with Pretty Pictures on sales, with Pretty Pictures releasing in France and For- tissimo handling the rest of the world. With Rasoulof ’s incarceration creating sympa-
thy and interest, the film is likely to travel more widely than his previous features, but is unlikely to chalk up the territorial coverage of fellow Iranian
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Asghar Farhadi’s Berlin breakout title A Separation. The film takes its time to establish the story,
keeping us guessing even while we pick up on lit- tle signs which suggest the cloud Noora (Zareh, convincing and intense) is living under. We see her in a crowded tube train removing her nail polish and donning a chador before getting off at Imam Khomeini station; we see her at home refilling her pet terrapin’s leaking glass tank; we see her pleading with a hostile secretary to be allowed to see her boss, a certain Mr Lofti. Gradu- ally the key plot points emerge through fragments of dialogue, some of which seems to be voiceover until, well into the scene, the camera finally focuses on the speaker. Noora is a lawyer who, for some unspoken rea-
son, has been banned from practising her profes- sion. She is trying to leave Iran and is pregnant — something recommended by Mr Lofti, the fixer who will organise the visa, whose scheme involves her giving birth outside of the country. But Noora’s husband is not around — he is “down south” she tells people, working as a crane driver. Noora is uncertain whether she even wants the baby, and meanwhile complications arise in the pregnancy. There is an implacable quality to the setbacks
Noora suffers: when two plain-clothes policemen search her flat, the menace is more disturbing for being suppressed: she cannot tell the neighbours, or her visiting mother, what is happening. Noora’s isolation is stressed by off-screen sounds which suggest a world indifferent to the plight of the individual. The one thing missing — and the rea- son why Goodbye is unlikely to have the audience purchase of A Separation — is dramatic tension: the film is more funeral march than thriller.
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
Bulg-Swe. 2011. 108mins Director/screenplay/ producer Kamen Kalev Production companies Waterfront Film, Chimney Pot, Film i Vasterbotton, Art Eternal, Bulgarian National Television International sales Le Pacte,
www.le-pacte.com Executive producers Elitza Katzarska, Stela Pavlova Cinematography Julian Atanassov Production designer Sebastian Orgambide Editors Asa Mossberg, Mikkel EG Nielsen, Kamen Kalev Music Jean-Paul Wall Main cast Thure Lindhardt, Laetitia Casta, Boyka Velkova, Russi Chanev, Alejandro Jodorowsky
When they land in Sofia, a doughy, seriously
retarded man accosts them for a cigarette, where- upon Sophie learns Daneel speaks Bulgarian. She thought he was German. They each have rather momentous secrets. Hoping to salvage what was meant to be a relax-
ing getaway, they take a ferry to a small island — formerly known as Bolshevik, no less — which boasts a monastery, a café and a handful of guest rooms. A deliciously ominous aura of unease per- vades every shot and dialogue exchange. Radiating earthy, sensual poise, Casta’s down-to-earth per- sona tries to defuse the percolating menace just by remaining herself as Daneel grows less familiar. Daneel’s glimpse of middle-aged guest Irina
(Velkova) has triggered the kind of dreams and memories — or are they delusional fantasies? — that the film medium conveys perfectly. In one
such feverish interlude, Sophie gives birth to something you don’t see every day, even in the aisles of Symbols R Us. Fed up with her increasingly erratic mate,
Sophie returns to Paris, leaving Daneel to experi- ence the sort of transformation caterpillars and butterflies have been perfecting for millennia. A strong and interesting premise seems to dis-
sipate into terminal eco-pretentiousness. Then things get really weird. Sophie and Daneel talk in English though she occasionally bursts into French. Lindhardt, a Dane who shows an impres- sive range as the tale plunges off the beaten path, learned his Bulgarian lines phonetically. From the opening scene in which Alejandro
Jodorowsky gives a Tarot reading to the unpredict- able multiple endings, this film has the courage of its convictions. It is a love-it-or-hate-it affair.
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