(Originally reviewed Sept. 7, 2022)
Prolific filmmaker and actor Houman Seyedi has been at the cutting edge of new Iranian cinema for the last ten years with ground-breakers like 13, a tale of teenage rebels, and Sheeple, a grungy actioner about a hoodlum with delusions of grandeur. In World War III (Jang-e Jahari Sevom) his career takes another turn in a searing portrait of poverty in today’s Iran, evolving into a full-fledged metaphor for an unnamed, murderous dictatorship by the end. And since the current state censorship policies have become more stringent than ever, now requiring detailed screenplay approval before a shooting permit is issued, there is indeed a lot of metaphor involved. One has to admire the skill of Seyedi and co-scripters Arian Vazir Daftari and Azad Jafarian in creating an edge-of-seat drama that also packs a big social message, though inevitably some of it gets lost for Western audiences. The winner of Best Film and Best Actor in the Venice Orizzonti section, it should have good chances of some international outreach.
Shakib (Mohsen Tanabandeh) is a poor man who has lost his family, home and roots — in fact, his emotional center — in an earthquake. He camps out with a friend when he’s not sleeping on a construction site. There is only one bright spot in his harsh existence: his affection for the deaf girl Ladan (Mahsa Hejazi) who works in a brothel. Shakib happens to know sign language, which kind of explains their bond, though the young woman has been toughened by life and her feelings towards him are never crystal clear.
Iran declared war on Germany in late 1943, after being occupied by British and Soviet forces. Still, an Iranian film featuring an actor in full Hitler drag comes as something of a shock, though he appears in the context of a film crew making a movie condemning Nazi atrocities in the concentration camps. Jews are not mentioned (but then, neither are women) in a gas chamber scene that frog-marches over-worked and underpaid male extras as the Nazis’ victims. The wary nervousness on the men’s faces as they are made to take off their clothes makes them perfect for the role; they are obviously used to being exploited and deceived.
This is exactly what happens to the warm-hearted but simple-minded Shakib. Like a host of other men, he gets up at the crack of dawn and goes to the highway, hoping to be chosen for the day’s work gangs. The lucky ones are loaded onto trucks like cattle and driven to building sites. One day Shakib finds work transporting an entire red frame house to another location, not realizing it’s a film set or the role it is destined to play in his life.
He’s a big burly man with a bristling beard, yet when the actor playing Adolf Hitler collapses on set, the director chooses him as a replacement. Go figure. But what a difference a costume and a shave make – Shakib makes a convincingly shell-shocked dictator and gets to sleep in the red house as a perk. It’s only when Ladan gets wind of his new situation and bullies him into taking her in that things get complicated.
Seyedi is an inventive director who knows how to ramp up the tension just when the story is going flat. Ladan’s handlers are not letting her go without “compensation” and a round of scary violence begins, culminating in a completely unforeseen disaster that changes everything. In his anguish, the tame worker Shakib is transformed into a vengeful fury, and this social drama becomes something much closer to a horror film.
Tanabandeh gives a career-best performance as a man of many faces, and his very physical acting draws the viewer into his world. Hejazi, too, seems double-faced as the deaf girl: a frail and vulnerable young woman who dreams of having a home and family of her own, but also pushy and self-interested. Notable figures on the film crew are Neda Jebrelli as a nagging A.D. and Navid Nosrati as a producer torn between morals and his budget.
Tech work is very convincing, from D.P. Payman Shadmanfar’s infernal gas chamber (where one night Shakib sneaks Ladan to shower in the dark) to the violent, well-edited fight scenes filmed as hand-held free-for-alls.
Director, producer, editor: Houman Seyedi
Screenplay: Houman Seyedi, Arian Vazir Daftari, Azad Jafarian
Cast: Mohsen Tanabandeh, Mahsa Hejazi, Neda Jebrelli, Navid Nosrati
Cinematography: Payman Shadmanfar
Production design: Mohsen Nasrolahi
Costume design: Elham Moien
Music: Bamdad Afshar
World Sales: Iranian Independents
Venue: Venice Film Festival (Orizzonti)
In Farsi
107 minutes
