Death Is My Profession

Death is My Profession can perhaps be best described as a thriller with a social conscience. It bears a striking resemblance to Yilmaz Guney's Yol and, to a lesser degree, Nuri Ceylon's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia. Three men try to steal electric cables from pylons by cutting them. Things go wrong. One is electrocuted to death, another kills a guard and runs away and the third one is captured. Then we follow the fate of the two remaining men as one takes on a dangerous journey through the snow covered mountains with his little daughter to escape from the law while the captured one is taken on an equally treacherous journey by a couple of police officers in the village to hand him to authorities in the nearest town. Writer-director Saghafi succeeds in making a few strong statements regarding the plight of unemployed and desperate young men in Iran who have to resort to any means possible to feed their families. At the same time, Death is My Profesions is a tense thriller, strikingly photographed in the Iranian countryside. Well worth catching.