#mohammad rasolouf

[jafar-panahi]

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (2024 🇮🇷) directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

[mtonino]

There is no evil (2020) Mohammad Rasolouf

Bella ciao delle mondine

Canzone di risaia, dal repertorio di Giovanna Daffini, sull'aria di "Bella ciao". Rielaborazione successiva alla guerra partigiana.

[zeamex]

Wave of Repression Spreads in Iran Against Artists and Dissidents

Wave of Repression Spreads in Iran Against Artists and Dissidents

In a new crackdown on dissidents and artists, Iran has arrested three renowned filmmakers within the past week, as well as a prominent reformist politician and the family members of protesters killed in anti-government uprisings in 2019. The directors, Jaffar Panahi, Mohammad Rasolouf and Mostafa Aleahmad, have all been vocal critics of the government. Mr. Rasolouf recently organized a social…

[whileiamdying]

Review: Banned Iranian filmmaker responds with blistering anthology ‘There Is No Evil’

Baran Rasoulof and Mohammad Seddighimehr in the movie “There is No Evil.”(Kino Lorber)

by Robert Abele May 14, 2021 8:31 Am Pt

The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.

A well-oiled repressive state makes its citizens complicit in the crushing of dissent, a moral weight explored with exquisite, patient mastery in Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s anthology film “There Is No Evil.” Four whirlpool-like stories of emotional dread surrounding the death penalty, they also reinforce the pulsing humanism in this autocratic country’s most fiercely committed storytellers.

Of course, you have to be fiercely committed to the power of film if to make one might put you behind bars. First detained in 2010 (along with celebrated director and occasional collaborator Jafar Panahi), Rasolouf has yet to serve his one-year prison sentence for the charge of making anti-government propaganda. But he’s also been under a 20-year filmmaking ban since 2017 — when his Cannes-feted clerical critique “A Man of Integrity” angered the regime — and is forbidden from leaving the country. To make “There Is No Evil,” therefore, Rasolouf used a strategic mix of production subterfuge and canny location choices.

The resulting film, however — which took the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, and is unsurprisingly banned in Iran — betrays no signs of something furtively made, like a guerrilla-style missive. In its elegantly photographed, classically told and acted mix of domestic scenes, bucolic settings, and character drama, it could sit right alongside a Hollywood epic or arthouse drama on a double bill. But when juxtaposed against a history of Iranian cinema that has often relied on child-centric allegory and non-specific narrative to make its societal critiques, “There Is No Evil” practically blisters with the intensity of specifically living in Iran as it exists now, as a state once believed to carry out the most executions of any country outside China.

That intensity is there in the occasionally trancing stare of the first story’s working husband and dad Heshmat (Ehsan Mirhosseini) as he punches out of his high-security job. We begin to sense that his life of unassuming domesticity — picking up his wife and daughter, shopping, chores, a mom visit, a mall dinner with the family — is no small bulwark against the realities of the other part of his day. That tension is also there, more openly, in the frightful eyes of anxious guard Pouya (Kaveh Ahangar), the protagonist of the second tale, “She Said ‘You Can Do It.’” Pouya is one of six military conscripts in a prison’s cramped sleeping quarters, desperate to avoid an act he’s sure will singe his soul: executing another human being. He hashes out various escape plans with his bunkmates, who have varying thoughts about Pouya’s rattled conscience regarding personal responsibility.

Iran’s enforced military service for young men is also the background of the soldier seen making his way to a secluded farmhouse in the third tale, “Birthday,” filmed with an eye for sylvan beauty and rustic melancholy by the cinematographer for all the stories, Ashkan Ashkani. Ostensibly on a three-day leave to celebrate the birthday of his fiancée Nana (Mahtab Servati) with her family, Javad (Mohammad Valizadegan) must also contend with the family’s grief over the recent death of their close friend. What plays out may feel deliberately engineered if one were to nitpick about plot, but in keeping with the movie’s themes of choice and consequence, it still packs a punch.

The last segment, “Kiss Me,” concerns the momentous visit a young medical student named Darya (Baran Rasoulof, the director’s daughter) makes to older beekeeping couple Barham (Mohammad Seddighimehr) and Zaman (Jila Shahi), who live quietly in a remote, dusty, sparsely populated area. In its simmering mix of vague foreboding and the richness of human connection, it’s a fitting conclusion, but particularly for how its big reveal acts as a defining finale for all the secretly filmed tales that make up “There Is No Evil”: stressing the long-term cost a tyrannical country’s legacy of capital punishment will have on how its people view love and security.

'There Is No Evil' In Farsi with English subtitles Not rated Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Playing: Starts May 14, Laemmle Royal, West L.A.; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena; and Laemmle Town Center, Encino; also available on Laemmle Virtual Cinema

[yessadirichards]

Berlinale celebrates 70 years with return to political roots    BERLIN

An exploration of what freedom means in a dictatorship by a jailed Iranian director and the story of three people trying to wrest back control of their lives from social media giants are among the films competing in this year's Berlin Film Festival.

The program for the 70th Berlinale, currently under way, was described by its new director Mariette Rissenbeek as an exploration of artistic and political topics, marking a return to the roots of a festival that was launched in a divided city on the frontlines of the Cold War.

Among 18 films competing for a coveted Golden Bear is Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy's "DAU. Natasha", the first fruit of his DAU project, in which actors were filmed living in a long-term simulation of Stalin's Soviet Union.

Iranian director Mohammad Rasolouf will not be able to attend the premiere of "There is No Evil," an exploration of themes such as moral strength and the death penalty, due to his imprisonment last year in Iran on charges of anti-government"propaganda".

"It's going to be a more ... back-to-the-roots approach, trying to focus on more the quality of cinema and on real strong arthouse movies," said Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief at the Hollywood Reporter.

The coronavirus epidemic may also make for a slightly lower-key Berlinale. According to Matthijs Wouter Knol, head of the parallel European Film Market, there have been some 100 cancellations, a modest number compared to the 21,000 industry visitors expected in total.

Jeremy Irons, the British actor who chairs the jury, will have to choose between films that also include Belgian-French drama "Delete History" about social media companies, and Burhan Qurbani's Berlin Alexanderplatz, a retelling of the classic 1929 German novel of social exclusion with a West African refugee as the main character.

Other notable premieres include Andrew Levitas's "Minamata", starring Johnny Depp as U.S. war photographer W. Eugene Smith, enticed out of retirement for a final act of bravery in 1970s Japan, and "Stateless", Cate Blanchett's television series exploring the lives of refugees in Australia.

A different reminder of the festival's origins in the aftermath of World War Two cast a shadow over preparations this year: The name of founding director Alfred Bauer was dropped from the second-place Silver Bear over allegations that the critic played a more important role in Adolf Hitler's Nazi dictatorship than previously thought.

[vimooz]

Iranian Director Mohammad Rasolou of A MAN WITH INTEGRITY Denied Exit from Iran 'AGAIN'

Iranian Director Mohammad Rasolou of A MAN WITH INTEGRITY Denied Exit from Iran ‘AGAIN’

The Stockholm International Film Festival issued a statement today, announcing that Iranian director Mohammad Rasolouf has been denied exit from Iran and will not be able to attend the upcoming festival to present his latest film A Man of Integrity. (more…)

[jafar-panahi]

شیطان وجود ندارد There Is No Evil - II: She said: 'You Can Do It' (2020,🇮🇷) directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

[jafar-panahi]

شیطان وجود ندارد There Is No Evil - I (2020,🇮🇷) directed by Mohammad Rasoulof