Six most important Iranian movies of 2019

Latest productions of Iranian cinema unveiled in 37th Fajr film festival. Among them, only a few movies had high enough standards, and among them, not even one could be considered a perfect movie, with outstanding intro and a touching final, a fulfilling movie with suspenseful narrative and real enough characters which are believable. even though there were six movies that were worth watching and of course a bit more pondering.

Redskin

Homayoun Ghanizadeh is a successful theater director and now has tried his hand in moviemaking by making "The Mocker." Ghanizadeh's first experience as a director is about a barber shop with three barbers which has a fantasy and melancholic atmosphere. he takes the camera to each one of them and explores their characters. Theatrical shooting script which has its roots in directors experience in theater and special effects which play out in limited space of the scene takes the movie through the first half. But the problem found in most of the Iranian movies can also be found here, and the movie loses its rhythm in the second half. Nevertheless, The Mocker is considered a new experience in characterization and atmosphere in Iranian cinema.

Mocker

Homayoun Ghanizadeh is a successful theater director and now has tried his hand in moviemaking by making "The Mocker." Ghanizadeh's first experience as a director is about a barber shop with three barbers which has a fantasy and melancholic atmosphere. he takes the camera to each one of them and explores their characters. Theatrical shooting script which has its roots in directors experience in theater and special effects which play out in limited space of the scene takes the movie through the first half. But the problem found in most of the Iranian movies can also be found here, and the movie loses its rhythm in the second half. Nevertheless, The Mocker is considered a new experience in characterization and atmosphere in Iranian cinema.

Gholamreza Takhti

Making a movie about Takhti is a tough job. His status as a national hero and sacred figure among Iranian people, make this job equal to walking on the edge of the knife. To better illuminate the sensitivity of the issue, we can consider the fact that after this wrestling champion's death, a number of Iranians commite suicide due to grief. In order to stay in the national team, one can not get in a fight with the whole system but Takhti during the Pahlavi regime and times of crack down on people took peoples side and the regime in return put him under pressure and banned him from entering stadiums, effectively leading him to a life of isolation. this robbed the champion of his self-esteem and eventually, he committed suicide. for years there were debates about whether he died due to suicide or Pahlavi regime actually killed him. Bahram Tavakoli, director of "Gholamreza Takhti" at the very beginning solves this for the audience and a sequence of Takhti committing suicide is shown and after he was done whith how the champion had died he shows his life of devotion to people affected by the earthquake, the poor and lower class of society. the actions which made him really popular and everlasting. Tavakoli has been able to recreate the atmosphere beautifully and in designing his match scenes its obvious that he was inspired by movies like Cinderella man and Raging bull which is tied to Iranian music. the movie is especially touching for Iranians who have background knowledge about Takhti and is a real national movie. but does Identification with this character extend to international level too? you should experience it for yourself.

The Night Moon Was Full

The Night Moon Was Full is the fourth Feature film of Narges Abyar. Abyar who has a writing background makes her movies rather longer and usually slower in rhythm in comparison to other Iranian filmmakers. but in her new movie, she has chosen a faster pace and has presented a movie which was not expected of her. The movie is about Abdolhamid Rigi brother of Abdolmalek Rigi leader of a terrorist group and his love to a girl from the capital of Iran. this love gets involved in the terrorist operations of the group and Abdulhamid decapitates his brother in low and shots his wife dead by the order of his brother. Houtan Shakiba who plays the Abdulhameed Rigi portrays the transformation of a simple man to a terrorist and releasing his inner demons perfectly. Elnaz Shakerdoost who plays the role of Abdelhamid's wife displays a different performance compared to her past roles and achieves critical acclaim. the best performance of the movie belongs to Fereshteh Sadre Orafaee who plays the Abdolhamid's mother. The movie is an impressive drama-thriller and even though the cinematography and Characterization are not flawless but all in all the movie is a success. in fact, the movie is so good that some have called Narges Abyar the Kathryn Bigelow of Iran.

Qasr-e Shirin

At the end of his second decade as a filmmaker, Reza Mirkarimi has developed a deeper perspective and now Qasr-e Shirin as his tenth movie is much better than his early works. Mirkarimi who has won the International Critics' Week award for the best move for "Here, a Shining Light" in Cannes festival in 2001, has combined few professional actors with unprofessional ones and has made his movies using this method. This is a technique used extensively by Abbas Kiarostami in earlier years. The latest movie by Mirkarimi is a road movie about a man who has sold his recently dead wife's heart and now his children who were raised by his wife are forced apoun him by his wife's family. Hamed Behdad who plays this man goes through a transformation in this adventurous day and takes the audience with him. the smooth and even narrative and proper performances even from child actors in this movie also were extremely remarkable and this seemingly simple yet deeply technical movie acquired critical acclaim.

Six and Half Per Meter

Six and Half Per Meter is Saeed Roustayi's second movie after Life+1 Day and is a detective thriller. in some of its sequences like the explosion in a drug lab the movie reminds you of Sicario but all in all, compared to directors frist movie leaves much to be desired. Peyman Moaadi as the Actor playing the Police role doesn't come off as natural. the way the drug mafia is treated is not violent enough and doesn't suite this level of criminals. Navid Mohammadzadeh in Redskin showed good performance as the warden and in this movie as the leader of the mafia delivers a matching performance which resulted in critical acclaim. the last one-third of the movie sees it fall into ruins as the performance and cinematography and Scenic design cant fix the boredom caused by the plot flow. and in final sequences, the strong detective thriller turns into a weak drama.

*Mr. Khorramdel is Director of Multimedia Office & Culture Editor in TABNAK.com he is a Filmmaker and independent film critic.