This was another of the rare pre-revolution Iranian films screening at MIFF this year, and unlike all of the others, “The Stranger and The Fog” has just received a brand new 4K restoration (from the original camera negative), so the quality of the presentation we saw was impeccable. It gave a complete and true view of the film in question, and one thing immediately apparent was that “The Stranger and The Fog” was a very handsome production. The film just oozes quality and I was not surprised to learn that director Bahram Beyzaie was also involved, in some capacity (this time as producer), in the making of “Chess of the Wind”, also made in 1976, as the two films share the same high production values, even though they share nothing from a story or location point of view.
It may be already obvious, but “The Stranger and The Fog” has been beautifully directed and stunningly shot by cinematographers Mehrdad Fakhimi and Firooz Malekzadeh, who use the beach locations and surrounding village to create a mysterious world of superstition and ritual. As great as it has been made though, it is a film that I respect more than I love, and to be honest, I was not a massive fan of its story. It has some incredible individual scenes, but as a total whole, I did not love it. I appreciate just how well it has been made and respect the level of film making present (which is truly magnificent) but certain elements within the story annoyed me. Firstly, I got quickly tired with the cyclical way that the villagers treated Ayat, the stranger; at the start they fear him, then they accept him, then they reject him when he shows a liking towards Rana, then they accept him when the two of them marry, then they hate him when more strangers appear threatening their village, etc. It is never ending, and there is no loyalty involved whatsoever that you cannot blame poor Ayat for becoming so paranoid. Another thing I hated was this character who screamed any time something bad or weird happened. It was so over the top, and completely against the style of the rest of the film. I'm sure he is meant to be the comedy relief of the film but it didn't work for me at all, rather I found myself rolling my eyes every time he was onscreen.
What I did like though was the character of Rana who, like the stranger, was considered a pariah of the town. The reason for this is because her husband, who was famous for being their village's best fisherman, was recently lost at sea, so the villagers now consider her bad luck (not sure how it's her fault). Because she is in a state of mourning, she never smiles at anyone and is always dressed in black, so when Ayat attempts to engage with her, she initially comes across very cold towards him. As her attitude begins to thaw, the villagers then turn on her more deeming she is being disrespectful to her dead husband for entertaining the attention of another man when she should be mourning (even though her husband has been gone for over a year already). This ultimately plays on Rana's mind as she then worries if she is indeed doing the right thing spending time with another man, but as time passes and her happiness increases, her worries subside and she starts to smile once again, before dressing in colour once more. The actress who plays Rana in “The Stranger and The Fog” is Parvaneh Massoumi who is really fantastic in the role, having to convey a huge array of moods (as opposed to emotions, given that the role is more of an internal one), and really comes into her own in the final extended battle scene. Out of all the characters in “The Stranger and The Fog”, hers has the biggest arc.
Speaking of that battle scene, it is something to behold and is so well put together and choreographed, it looks like something out of a Japanese samurai film. Out of nowhere, five strangers appear on boats intent on bringing Ayat back. Dressed in intimidating black cloaks with pointed shoulders and wooden head gear, brandishing very sharp scythes as weapons, my interpretation is that they are agents of Death, and that Ayat was always meant to have died on the water that day, and these five have returned to finally even that ledger. My interpretation is bolstered by the fact that there is definitely something supernatural with these five, as when they are struck by a weapon, Ayat himself receives a wound on his body in that exact same place. It is such an amazing scene though, complex in its execution, and unlike anything else I have seen in Iranian cinema prior. Watching the villagers, Ayat and Rana all fighting these antagonists together in an extended action scene is exhilarating.
Speaking of the intimidating design of these antagonists, it reminds me that I must mention just how fantastic the costumes are on “The Stranger and The Fog”, particularly when it comes to Rana who has a bravura moment (involving her clothes) at the end of the film. The clothes that Rana wears always indicate where her state of mind is at. When we first meet her, she is in an extended state of mourning so is dressed head to toe in black with her face covered. As time goes on though, she removes the scarf that is covering her face, before she soon stops wearing black altogether. As he romance with Ayat blossoms and her happiness increases, so too does the brightness (in terms of colour) of her clothes, until she is finally dressed in white during the afterglow of her marriage. During the final battle, she is dressed in white, soaked from the teeming rain, fabric torn from all of the action. When the dust settles and the battle is over, Rana stands there silently, dripping wet, before ripping her white clothes from her body, exposing a thinner black variation underneath; she is once more in mourning. It is a hell of a moment! In regards to the costumes of the villagers, I once again felt a Japanese influence to them, like they were modelled on the farmers from Akira Kurosawa's “Seven Samurai”.
As fantastic as the level of film making is within “The Stranger and The Fog”, I will admit that I found myself confused at times during the film as to what exactly was going on, and puzzled at some of the character's motivations and actions. After looking back at the MIFF guide, it explains that the film “...is an endlessly symbolic tale in which uncontrollable forces of nature, superstition, ritual and violence disorient the viewer in exhilarating ways. In the film’s meticulously structured circular narrative, characters, times and spaces rhyme and mirror one another, turning film making into an act of dreaming. Characters are the products of one another’s imaginations, and eventually all become myth.” So maybe the unusual (to me) reactions and actions from some of the characters have to do with traditional village rituals or ideals that I do not or cannot understand. The introduction of (what I perceived to be) supernatural elements further makes determining what is real or not that much harder. I also wonder if Ayat's paranoia ends up becoming a self fulfilling prophecy in that he is so sure that he doesn't belong, and terrified that people may be after him (since he cannot remember his past thanks to his amnesia), that this fear ends up materialising in the form of the five strangers who come for him at the end. I am not sure about any of this, and this confusion over story elements ultimately frustrated me more than it excited me.
Overall, “The Stranger and The Fog” is a film that I respect more than I love. It has been impeccably made, and has a number of fantastic scenes within it, but my frustration at character's questionable motives and actions, and my confusion over exactly what was going on at times, stopped me from loving the whole of “The Stranger and The Fog”. I would love to re-watch it again one day to try and work it all out, and thanks to the new restoration that screened here at MIFF, this seems more than likely, as a brand new trailer for the film debuted a few days after I saw the film.
3 Stars.
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