A survivor now living in exile, Mohsen Makhmalbaf (Gabbeh, Kandahar) is one of Iran’s most important living auteurs, both literally and figuratively the father of a new generation of filmmakers, given he’s also the dad of Samira Makhmalbaf, Hana Makhmalbaf and Maysam Makhmalbaf.
This early feature, about an anthropology lecturer (Manuchehr Esmaili) and his daughter (Mojgan Naderi) living through the last years of the Shah, the revolution and its painful aftermath, was made in 1990 and shown publicly only once. However, the state censors objected to Makhmalbaf’s audacious critique of Iranian society, among other things, so they butchered the negative, cutting out 20 minutes of footage now thought to be lost for ever. In 2016, someone managed to salvage the surviving 63 minutes and smuggle it out of the country so what’s left could be seen at the Venice film festival.
That remarkable backstory is enough to make this an important work for anyone interested in the region, its art, history and culture, and supporting freedom of speech. The fact that the film, even in this elliptical, mangled version, still manages to be a rich meditation on family life, the legacy of violence and lost love makes it essential viewing.
Fans who know only Makhmalbaf’s later work will be fascinated to see him deploying more than usual the flamboyant, experimental flourishes such as low-angle tracking shots and oneiric editing techniques that underscore how much he, like other Iranian filmmakers of the period, was influenced by the work of Soviet directors such as Russian Andrei Tarkovsky and Georgian-Armenian Sergei Parajanov.
