I caught this movie at the Festival of Iranian Films at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and thought I'd add the first comment for it here at IMDB. Caution: some spoilers ahead.
At the heart of this movie is a very intriguing story about a poor Iranian Kurdish woman, who agrees to marry a wealthy Iranian sergeant she does not love in order to provide a better life for herself and her family.....
But there's a catch: The sergeant is only interested in having this woman provide him with a male heir, and is not the least bit interested in her...
what follows in the movie is a horrific sequence of events that covers everything from sado-masochism, murder, abortion, chases, and death. All mixed in with a touch of political and social commentary to boot.
All of this would have made for a wonderful drama, had it not been for the director's decision to film the entire movie in a "Reality-TV" style in which the entire movie is seen from the point-of-view of someone holding a camcorder (usually the Kurdish woman's POV, but sometimes the Iranian sergeant's POV as well).
What is disappointing with this choice of style is not so much that the viewer is subjected to an hour and a half of shaking camera views, rough edits, audio problems, and shots from bizarre camera angles... ...but rather that this style is not appropriate for telling this story! There are scenes in the movie when i find it hard to believe that any of the characters in the film would be lugging a camcorder around with them in the middle of an argument or a motorcycle ride or a chase... ...so the "suspension of disbelief" feeling breaks down, and ruins what may have been an otherwise horrific drama.
In my opinion, the director should have stuck to a traditional approach to film this story.
At the heart of this movie is a very intriguing story about a poor Iranian Kurdish woman, who agrees to marry a wealthy Iranian sergeant she does not love in order to provide a better life for herself and her family.....
But there's a catch: The sergeant is only interested in having this woman provide him with a male heir, and is not the least bit interested in her...
what follows in the movie is a horrific sequence of events that covers everything from sado-masochism, murder, abortion, chases, and death. All mixed in with a touch of political and social commentary to boot.
All of this would have made for a wonderful drama, had it not been for the director's decision to film the entire movie in a "Reality-TV" style in which the entire movie is seen from the point-of-view of someone holding a camcorder (usually the Kurdish woman's POV, but sometimes the Iranian sergeant's POV as well).
What is disappointing with this choice of style is not so much that the viewer is subjected to an hour and a half of shaking camera views, rough edits, audio problems, and shots from bizarre camera angles... ...but rather that this style is not appropriate for telling this story! There are scenes in the movie when i find it hard to believe that any of the characters in the film would be lugging a camcorder around with them in the middle of an argument or a motorcycle ride or a chase... ...so the "suspension of disbelief" feeling breaks down, and ruins what may have been an otherwise horrific drama.
In my opinion, the director should have stuck to a traditional approach to film this story.
