Salad-e fasl

Jeyrani is a journalist turned director. He found immediate success with Red, his first movie which was a a pretty good Hitchcokian film noir. He then tried other genres, but not with the same success. Now, with Salade Fasl (Garden Salad), he returns to the film noir genre. Sadly, despite the presence of some of Iran's best current crop of actors, the end result is somewhat disappointing. Jeyrani has an assured way of creating interesting characters and rich dialogue. He has certainly delivered again on that front. The main weakness of this film is the script's structure. As a thriller, it is fairly devoid of tension and full of loop holes. As a social statement, it is uncertain. It does keep your interest though thanks to good work by Khosrow Shakibai, as a seasoned criminal, Leila Hatami, as a girl on the wrong side of the tracks, Mohamad Reza Sharifinia, type cast as a rich businessman in a dangerous liaison with Hatami, and Mahnaz Afshar as Sharifinia's wife. Worth watching if your expectations are not very high.