Leakage

On the final day of the Cine-Excess festival,I noticed a note saying that for 24 hours,"Second run" streams of earlier screenings would be on. Having wanted to revisit it due to the late streaming meaning I could not turn the volume up for the muffled dialogue, I got set to find the leak.

Note:Review contains some spoilers.

View on the film:

Leaking oil across the floor as a symbol of menstruating, debut co- editor (with Majid Barzegar)/writer/director Suzan Iravanian fuels Fantasy with a Neo- Realist stylisation of the Iran New Wave (INW.)

Sitting the camera in the living room as the family discuss in the kitchen over what to do with the oil,Iravanian presents a portrait of the family with no make-up, via INW narrow shots in the back seats of cars picking up snippets of arguments taking place outside, and long-distance wide-shots tracking the family driving across the rural landscape.

Although audio such as Mad Max being watched on TV blasts out fine,Iravanian makes the odd,distracting choice to play the main dialogue/soundtrack of the film at a muted level, with moments when family members talking to themselves playing out mute,over loud chirping birds.

When the audio effect is not distracting, the screenplay by Iravanian drills into a fantastical exploration of the exploitation of Iran's resources, twined with a disquiet drama based around the paranoia of the men in the family over her having such power in the family, leading them to attempt and normalise the leak.