IRON ISLAND

 

The third and final film I saw at ACMI's recent Mohammad Rasoulof retrospective was 2005's “Iron Island”, the director's second feature. Out of Rasoulof's first three films, this turned out to be my favourite of them, and it was plain to see the huge jump he took between his debut film “The Twilight”and “Iron Island” in terms of cinematic style. While “Iron Island” is still as humanistic as the previous film, gone is the docu-drama style which has been replaced with a much more refined and grander visual style, complete with some very powerful slow motion shots (which is something of a rarity in Iranian cinema).

“Iron Island” is about a large group of poor people who, unable to afford lodgings on land, have found refuge on a disused and rusting (not to mention, slowly sinking) oil tanker, where those onboard have created a community amongst themselves. Small sections of the boat have been cordoned off for each family's living quarters, the kids attend a school run by a teacher onboard, while the men on the ship and the male kids of working age pull apart the scrap metal and drain whats left of the oil to sell off. Meanwhile the women of the ship, keep it clean and tidy while preparing meals for their loved ones. It appears that this small community is living in total harmony, but the going-ons of the ship are run with an iron fist by Nemat, the ship's captain. He is a complex character because at times he comes across as caring and genuinely heartfelt towards his lodgers, but is he really just using these people for his own personal gain, while unwittingly going to end up leaving them with nothing for themselves? Further tensions arise when Nemat's assistant, Ahmad, falls in love with a young girl on the ship (who has already been promised for marriage to another, much older man), which causes the captain's more dictatorial tendencies to come to the surface, potentially destroying his “nice guy” facade.

What I really liked about “Iron Island” was although a lot of the allegorical moments, particularly involving the dictators and their strict ruling over their people, seem to relate to Iran and its current political situation, it is actually a pretty universal tale (sadly) of underprivileged people being taken advantage of, first without their knowledge until it is too late, and second, by trusting people who on the surface claim to be helping these people but are doing anything but. The community onboard offer a microcosm of a blue-collar world; men and women working on physically demanding jobs on a daily basis, just to get through the daily grind.

Rasoulof's greatest asset in the film is the ship itself; never has rust and decay looked more beautiful and visually interesting. I mean parts of the boat are so badly conditioned that it feels like you need a tetanus shot just from looking at it, but it is all strangely very beautiful too. No doubt it must have been a dangerous place to shoot the film, with all of it's sharp edges, failing railings and the like, but the fact that a lot of this ship has been re-purposed as small dwellings for each family, it gives it a beauty and a sense of wonder that you normally wouldn't relate with such an environment. It is home to these people, and while it may not be much to us, they take pride in what little they have onboard. I also really loved the way that Mohammad Rasoulof contrasted the rust and decay of the ship with the stunningly crystal clear water that the ship is sitting and slowing sinking into, which I saw as a visual representation of the corruption taking place onboard.

An interesting aspect of “Iron Island” is Mohammad Rasoulof's decision not to focus on one main character or narrative thread, rather choosing to look at the exploits and experiences of a number of different characters, in an attempt to give a more complete picture of the community and the conflicts within the community as a whole. While it initially appears that Nemat and his assistant Ahmad are going to be the main characters of the film (and to be fair, I guess all the stories within “Iron Island” do orbit these characters in some fashion), they are soon included by the increasingly disillusioned teacher, a young boy who spends his time in the bowels of the boat freeing small fish who have become trapped inside, an elder man constantly staring at the horizon (searching for future hope?), and briefly, the young girl that Ahmad falls in love with. I personally thought the teacher's exploits very interesting as he is a man who clearly cares about imparting his knowledge on to the youth, but is constantly hampered in this task due to the “lessons” he is forced to focus on by Nemat, which involves repeating key lines of dialogue in his teachings such as “life on the ship is great”, while at the same time discouraging exploration of the world outside of the ship. As the movie goes on, you can feel his frustrations grow as he knows he is teaching these children nothing truthful about the world, rather forcing an indoctrination down their throats instead. By the end, you feel his passion for teaching has completely dissipated, and he no longer cares.

As I mentioned earlier, Nemat is a complex character in that he does run the ship in a dictatorial fashion, but there are moments when he comes across sympathetically. Granted this may be a method to keep his “flock” in check and under control, while making them believe he has their best interests at heart, but I still hazard to call him an out and out evil character. That said, there are still many moments and indications in the film that expose the dictator inside that he is trying to disguise. One way is how all the women are treated onboard the ship, with all of them forced to wear a burka on their face if their husbands are not present. One of the greatest moments in “Iron Island” involves one of these burkas when Ahmad and the girl he loves, communicate from different levels of the ship by passing notes to each other on a small string, until the young girl ties her burka to said string (leaving her “unmasked” and “naked”). Whilst absolutely a chaste gesture to anyone in the western world, the erotic and romantic connotations of the gesture in this world is impossible to miss or ignore. And it is this young love affair that really exposes Nemat for the true dictator he is, when he makes a public showing of the beating and torture he gives to Ahmad (for attempting to leave the boat with his love) in order to keep the rest of the inhabitants on the boat in check. It is the film's most brutal moment, and something of a shock seeing just how far Nemat goes, especially considering how placid Nemat has been with his dealings with Ahmad in the film previous, almost being like a father-figure to the boy. The other main way we witness Nemat exploit the squatters onboard is by the constant overworking of the men. They are given the hardest tasks to complete, which Nemat reaps the rewards from their hard work.

Personally I found the ending of the film to be particularly heartbreaking too (although I was surprised that some at the screening saw some form of hope and saw the ending as a new beginning for the group). With the ship sinking quicker, it is decided that the group must leave the ship and build a town on land with the money they have made from stripping the boat of its iron and the oil drained from it. While Nemat professes big dreams to the group who trust in him, all I could see was lies. In my mind, it wouldn't be long until he fled from the group leaving them all with nothing. His dreams of the town they will build are too fanciful and if it doesn't ring true, it probably isn't. However the heartbreaking part is the way most of the people still look at Nemat, like he is their saviour. They are going to be left high and dry and do not even expect it......or maybe that is my cynical viewpoint of the world, and it is a happy ending for all. However, my interpretation seems to be backed up by a brilliant final scene of the young boy who finds a small fish trapped in a rock pool. Like he did on the boat, he collects the fish before throwing it back out to sea, saving it........until he notices that the fishing nets surrounding the area he just threw the fish. It is a symbolic moment signifying that they “are out of the frying pan, but into the fire”, and the scene finishes with the most powerful use of slow motion as the boy turns, and runs back towards the ocean in an attempt to save the fish he just threw in there.

Overall, I was very impressed by Mohammad Rasoulof's “Iron Island”; it was a fantastic film filled with characters you care about, and packed to the gills with humanity and respect towards those less fortunate than most. I think what really impressed me the most though, was Rasoulof's increased confidence behind the camera and his improvement in creating a visual style that was becoming very cinematic. Out of his earlier, more poetic films, “Iron Island” was the film I enjoyed the most, even though at times it can be a painful watch, I think the humanity of the characters shines through to make it a more positive experience than you may initially think it will be.

3.5 Stars.

 

 

THE TWILIGHT

 

Continuing ACMI's complete retrospective of the films by Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, the next film I saw was “The Twilight”, which was Rasoulof's feature debut that he made in 2002. The imdb describes the film like so: “Ali-Reza Shalikaran is serving time in prison for theft. He is a troublesome figure, trying as he does to escape from the prison and committing acts of violence. A handful he may be, but he finds a caring figure in the prison warden. The warden puts forward the case that Ali-Reza might settle down when he finds a wife. Yet how is Ali-Reza to find a wife when he is enclosed within the prison walls? The task of finding a marriage partner falls to Ali-Reza's mother, who is also in prison. She comes across a young woman, who, though incarcerated for drug-related offences, is respectable. Will the match work?”

This is a very modest film from Rasoulof, clearly made with very limited means, but even with what little he has at his disposal, Rasoulof is able to create a human tale about both compassion and the hardships prisoners endure once they have served their time, which often force them into drastic measures that sees them imprisoned once again. The biggest element that needs to be mentioned in regards to “The Twilight” is that it is a true story. Rasoulof was touched by the real life story of Ali-Reza and his wife, that he wanted to turn it into a film, but the amazing thing here is that he got the real people to play themselves for the film. With where the story ends up going, I must say that I am surprised that both Ali-Reza and his wife, Fatemeh Bijan, were okay recreating events from their past for a movie which, while it does have a lot of moments of happiness within it, ultimately ends in a tragic circumstance of recidivism. While it is interesting that Rasoulof has cast the real couple to play themselves in “The Twilight”, this is strangely not a unique case in Iranian cinema, as a number of films have been made about true stories with the real protagonists of these stories playing themselves in the films. Abbas Kiarostami's “Close Up” is probably the most famous of these films, and much more successful than Rasoulof's “The Twilight” which suffers from his two “actors” being rather wooden onscreen, particularly the wife.

The highlight of “The Twilight” is actually the story itself, and the hero within the story is the kind-hearted prison warden who is able to see the good in Ali-Reza, despite him being regularly troublesome in the prison. The warden is able to recognise that this is a man who has spent his whole adult life in prison, with seemingly nothing to live for, so if he did have something in his life, it would probably change him for the better, which is exactly what happens. It is touching to see an authority figure in an Iranian film being portrayed in a positive light, because they are rarely seen that way, often seen as pawns of the regime. Here we have a genuine human connection between a prison warden and one of his prisoners, one who is willing to cut through the red tape in an attempt to give this man a better life in prison, and hopefully a future out of it.

Personally, I felt that the scenes within the prison during the first half of the film were the strongest, particularly the dramatisation of Ali-Reza's change towards a positive outlook on life when he has someone to finally care about. To see this downtrodden man suddenly smiling and looking forward to his weekly visit from his wife, it is really heart warming. Smack bang in the middle of the film, we get real-life video footage from Ali-Reza and Fatemeh's wedding in prison, and it is really nice to see just how joyous an occasion it was for both of them, and their guests, even though it was taking place behind the walls of a prison.

Eventually both Ali-Reza and Fatemeh are released from prison (with Fatemeh released much earlier due to a quirk in the Iranian justice system which the prison warden exploits) and attempt to live their lives on the outside. They have a tiny, one room house out in the country, but they are happy. However, this happiness soon turns to desperation as Ali-Reza finds out that no one will give him a chance on the outside world, due to the fact of him being an ex-con. No matter how hard he is willing to work, he is always rejected, which then leads to dejection as the stress of having to provide for both a wife, and new baby, start to have an affect on his decision making. So while “The Twilight” initially is a very uplifting film, it is equally as heartbreaking to see this man once again so downbeat when no one will give him a chance and he cannot provide for his family. Personally I felt this second half of the film lacked the compelling narrative drive of the first half and became very repetitive. I understand that this is probably how it happened in reality, but there really isn't much to chew on once the couple is released from prison, as we continually see him getting knocked back and rejected.

As I mentioned at the beginning, “The Twilight” was made with very modest means. I believe that it was shot on digital video (if it wasn't, it certainly looked like it), and in real locations like the prison itself. There is nothing very cinematic about the whole venture, the film plays more like a documentary than a feature film, which is interesting in seeing where Mohammad Rasoulof started to where his films are today, which are now so powerfully cinematic. Maybe the decision to shoot in a low-fi manner was so that the real-life wedding footage would edit in seamlessly? I am not sure, but if so, this does work well.

Overall, Mohammad Rasoulof's debut feature “The Twilight” is a tiny film, that tells a human story in a truthful if non-flashy manner. It certainly does not suggest the types of film's we would be getting from this very talented director in the future, but as small as “The Twilight” is, I would still say it is a success at telling the story it wanted to tell. It is an initially positive story about an empathetic prison warden attempting to give a troubled prisoner a future. However dreams of a normal life are quickly shattered when no-one will give the ex-con a chance which leads to a return to prison, in what appears to be a never ending vicious circle in the lives of prisoners in Iran. If anything, Rasoulof appears to be pleading to his audience to always look at the good in everyone and to give people a second chance, and not let their mistakes define them.

3 Stars.

 

THE WHITE MEADOWS

 

ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) are currently doing a retrospective of Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's complete filmography, and as luck would have it, the three films of his that I have yet to see (which also happen to be his first three films), I am able to attend the screenings for. The first of these films that I am seeing is 2009's “The White Meadows”, Mohammad Rasoulof's third feature.

Set in the salt lakes of Lake Urmia situated in Northern Iran, Rahmat rows his boat from each small island to the next, where he performs the strangest task for the inhabitants of these lands. For the past thirty years, Rahmat has been collecting the tears of these people whenever he visits. Due to the nature of his job, he has to see these people at their saddest or most distraught, and so treats the collection of the tears with the utmost respect. Regularly cleaning his collection materials, so that the owner's know that their tears are being looked after and have some worth. Whilst no-one really knows what exactly Rahmat does with the tears, the rumours of him turning the tears into pearls is enough that no one has a problem sharing their own. While on these islands, the villagers look after Rahmat and sometimes get him to help with certain tasks. One day, while agreeing to take the dead body of a young woman off the island so she can be buried on the mainland, Rahmat discovers that the body has been replaced by that of a boy, desperate to travel with Rahmat to the neighbouring islands to search for his missing father. Whilst initially furious with the boy, once Rahmat calms down, he agrees on the proviso that the boy poses as his son, who happens to be mute and deaf.

As I hinted above, I have seen all of Mohammad Rasoulof's films starting from “Good Bye”, which was the film he made directly after “The White Meadows” in 2011. What I hadn't realised though was from when I had started watching Rasoulof's films, it also coincided with the time he was arrested and jailed for protesting a recent election which was considered to be a sham. What is immediately apparent with “The White Meadows” is the difference in the type of Rasoulof's filmmaking style prior to his arrest compared to after. Unlike the direct and angry attacks on the current regime seen in his films from “Good Bye” onward, “The White Meadows” is much more poetic and allegorical in nature, whilst still having plenty to say about the injustices within his country of Iran. While there is no doubt that Mohammad Rasoulof was a political filmmaker right from the get-go, I must admit that I was initially very shocked in this difference seen in his earlier films, where his anger seems to be replaced by a deep concern, and it made me wonder what Rasoulof's film's may have looked like post “The White Meadows” if the State hadn't targeted him for persecution.

“The White Meadows” is a film that begins its story in a normal narrative way, then it starts to lean heavily into allegory before its very symbolic finale. The film is very episodic in nature too, as each time Rahmat visits a new island, we are witness to a small vignette of the inhabitant's rituals, superstitions and beliefs while he is there collecting the tears. In a way, “The White Meadows” plays almost like a road movie, where Rahmat is on a journey meeting new and fascinating characters along the way. One of the interesting things about his journey, is the way Rahmat is unaffected by or doesn't involve himself in what happens on each island. He is there to witness what is happening, not to intervene or take part in it, even if what he is watching has a barbaric nature to it all, like for instance when a young virgin girl is to be married and sacrificed to the lake god, in an attempt to reduce the salt levels in the lake. Like I said, Rahmat appears unaffected by it all, but the same cannot be said for his “son” once he is part of the journey, who finds himself trying to stop the madness to the detriment of both himself and Rahmat.

Visually, “The White Meadows” is stunning to look at with Rasoulof and his cinematographer, Ebrahim Ghafori, using the natural beauty of Lake Urmia to their advantage to create a landscape that is both unbelievably beautiful, while at the same time giving it an otherworldly feeling to it. There is just something about the white landscapes of salt lakes (and the surrounding islands) that makes them inherently eye-catching, but also disorientating because our own eyes are not used to images of this white colour. There are moments in this film where I was really confused as to if I was looking at a painting, or if what I was seeing onscreen was real (which it no doubt was), due to its extreme yet unusual beauty.

Outside of the locations themselves, the other part of “The White Meadows” that I thought was incredibly beautiful was the collection of the tears themselves. Just the idea is immensely poetic, but the way Rasoulof shows Rahmat's process of collecting the tears and both the preparation and cleaning of his equipment before and after the fact, I actually found to be incredibly moving. Rahmat shows himself to be detail oriented and methodical in his preparation, never taking for granted where the tears have come from and from what has caused these tears. In saying that, while he shows the utmost respect to the person giving him their tears, Rahmat still sees it as a job; an important job, yes, but a job nonetheless.

There is one vignette during the film where I saw a glimpse of the future, direct and angry Mohammad Rasoulof and that was the segment that sees a painter being abused and tortured because he wants to paint the sky (or is it the sea?) red instead of blue the way everyone else sees it. His friends are aghast by his decision to go against what everyone else sees and as such it is decided that he will be punished until he paints what he is told to do. This is an obvious allegory on Iran's treatment of its artists who dare try to expose something different than what the regime wants to be shown (which was, unbeknown at the time, soon to be Rasoulof's future too). This is one of the rare moments where Rahmat does step in and offer the man a drink of water, while he is buried up to his neck in salt, showing sympathy towards the persecuted artist. This is probably my favourite segment within the whole of “The White Meadows”.

When the final credits to “The White Meadows” started to roll, I must admit that I was surprised to see that superstar Iranian director Jafar Panahi edited the picture. Panahi is a special figure in Iranian cinema, and was the reason I fell in love with Iranian cinema after viewing his debut feature “The White Balloon” all those years ago. Whilst I knew he edited his own films, I was not aware that he had performed the duties for anyone else, so to see his name amongst the credits was a nice surprise, and thinking back on “The White Meadows” after the screening, I think it is true that the film moves at a similar pace to that of Jafar Panahi's own films, especially his earlier ones like “The Mirror” or “The Circle”.

Overall, whilst “The White Meadows” is a beautifully poetic film, I would be lying if I didn't say that I missed the more direct and angry style that I associated with Mohammad Rasoulof's later films. The film shows that Rasoulof was always a director aware of social issues within Iran, and while his use of allegory to show these injustices is well done in “The White Meadows”, I do not think the message hit as hard as in some of his later films. That said, the very symbolic ending of the film is strong and very well done (where we finally learn what Rahmat does with all the tears he has collected), leaving no doubt on what the main point of the film is.

 

3 Stars.