Nearing the end of downloading titles to watch for the best films of 2019 poll on ICM,I decided to check what movies had come from Iran in 2019. Finding just one title as output from the county in that year,I set off for the castle.
View on the film:
Driving back to a relationship Jalal had left on the tracks 3 years ago, editor/ director Reza Mirkarimi & cinematographer Morteza Hodaei listen in on what Jalal is returning to with jagged wide-shots from the inside of Jalal's car, which obscures the viewer from getting the full vision of the dusty path he is being pushed back into, with splinters of audio nailing the angered frustrations from those Jalal had left behind.
Sitting in the car with Jalal and his children Ali and Sara for the majority of the title, Mirkarimi places the viewer in the middle seat with excellent Iran New Wave (INW) fluid panning shots darting between the pent-up emotions of Jalal landing on the rocks of Sara and Ali's grief and sadness.
Turning the key on Jalal's life after the one-two-punch of being freed from jail and the wife who he had drifted apart from has suddenly died, the screenplay by Mohammad Davoudi and Mohsen Gharaie bring Neo-Noir grit to the INW, in Jalal (a excellent, hard-bitten Hamed Behdad ) being a loner figure who hits back at anyone who mutters questions over where he has been for the last 3 years, going as far as making excuses in order to avoid telling the kids in the back seat that his girlfriend is not just a "friend" sitting next to him.
Reuniting with his own young children after leaving them behind years ago, the writers give Jalal and his kids Ali and Sara (played by the pitch-perfect Niousha Alipour and Yuna Tadayyon) fantastic Neo- Realist stylised INW dialogue, where the passage of time and disconnection they share weighs heavy in the brittle exchanges of Ali and Sara missing their deceased mum, and Jalal finding himself in relationships which he can't merely drive away from.
View on the film:
Driving back to a relationship Jalal had left on the tracks 3 years ago, editor/ director Reza Mirkarimi & cinematographer Morteza Hodaei listen in on what Jalal is returning to with jagged wide-shots from the inside of Jalal's car, which obscures the viewer from getting the full vision of the dusty path he is being pushed back into, with splinters of audio nailing the angered frustrations from those Jalal had left behind.
Sitting in the car with Jalal and his children Ali and Sara for the majority of the title, Mirkarimi places the viewer in the middle seat with excellent Iran New Wave (INW) fluid panning shots darting between the pent-up emotions of Jalal landing on the rocks of Sara and Ali's grief and sadness.
Turning the key on Jalal's life after the one-two-punch of being freed from jail and the wife who he had drifted apart from has suddenly died, the screenplay by Mohammad Davoudi and Mohsen Gharaie bring Neo-Noir grit to the INW, in Jalal (a excellent, hard-bitten Hamed Behdad ) being a loner figure who hits back at anyone who mutters questions over where he has been for the last 3 years, going as far as making excuses in order to avoid telling the kids in the back seat that his girlfriend is not just a "friend" sitting next to him.
Reuniting with his own young children after leaving them behind years ago, the writers give Jalal and his kids Ali and Sara (played by the pitch-perfect Niousha Alipour and Yuna Tadayyon) fantastic Neo- Realist stylised INW dialogue, where the passage of time and disconnection they share weighs heavy in the brittle exchanges of Ali and Sara missing their deceased mum, and Jalal finding himself in relationships which he can't merely drive away from.