April 4, 2010
This may not be the most glowing first sentence in a film review, but I really enjoyed the last five minutes of this. The rest, apart from the series of short music videos which punctuate the story throughout, was a bit drab. Whilst the poster outside claimed that the film was politically provocative, the Iran depicted was almost endearing in places. OK, so the police arrest you if you start a band, but the games of hide and seek between kids and cops are the stuff of rock ‘n’ roll idealism. It’s only towards the end of the film that you feel the presence of an authoritarian Islamic state to be at all menacing. It’s only then that director Bahman Ghobadi gives his film a sense of drama.
So, this is the story. A young Iranian couple, Negar and Ashkan, want to go to London to play a gig. But they also need to find some other musicians to do it. The film is about how fixer Nader goes about getting them band mates and passports, but it’s not enough to give the film a sense of narrative momentum. There are too many scenes where nothing really happens, and the performances are functional rather than heartfelt, despite the film being based on true life events involving many of the cast themselves.
The music is, appropriately enough, the best thing here. The various bands introduced play an array of styles, including blues, rap, ‘indie rock’, and heavy metal. Some are in English, some are in Persian, and they give the film a very listenable soundtrack. But Ghobadi has created a showcase for the Iranian underground music scene, rather than a coherent and engaging piece of cinema. There is, in fact, an album that accompanies the film.
So, although the film geek in me likes watching ‘interesting’ cinema, this wasn’t interesting enough, not helped by the semi-documentary style of the camera work. I did, though, really like the Iranian rap song inter-cut with street scenes of Tehran, and the delight on one band member’s face when he is given a smuggled copy of the NME. And the last five minutes when the story is moved on. Beyond that, I didn’t think the film really worked.
So, this is the story. A young Iranian couple, Negar and Ashkan, want to go to London to play a gig. But they also need to find some other musicians to do it. The film is about how fixer Nader goes about getting them band mates and passports, but it’s not enough to give the film a sense of narrative momentum. There are too many scenes where nothing really happens, and the performances are functional rather than heartfelt, despite the film being based on true life events involving many of the cast themselves.
The music is, appropriately enough, the best thing here. The various bands introduced play an array of styles, including blues, rap, ‘indie rock’, and heavy metal. Some are in English, some are in Persian, and they give the film a very listenable soundtrack. But Ghobadi has created a showcase for the Iranian underground music scene, rather than a coherent and engaging piece of cinema. There is, in fact, an album that accompanies the film.
So, although the film geek in me likes watching ‘interesting’ cinema, this wasn’t interesting enough, not helped by the semi-documentary style of the camera work. I did, though, really like the Iranian rap song inter-cut with street scenes of Tehran, and the delight on one band member’s face when he is given a smuggled copy of the NME. And the last five minutes when the story is moved on. Beyond that, I didn’t think the film really worked.