The President

A dictator and his naive grandson witness a revolution in the making. Neither seems phased by the reasons for the uprising. The grandson is obsessed with finding his friend Maria and the old man just wants to escape the country alive.

The tone of this movie takes a turn to the darkside about an hour into the film. It doesn't look good for either, but what annoys me about the boy is his naivete. He never seems to understand the gravity of his situation. He is repeatedly told by his grandfather to just cover his ears and eyes, and he obediently complies.

While the dictator is ruler of an unnamed country, I saw a resemblance with the old actor to Tsar Nicholas II as he would have looked had he not been executed when he was just 50 years old.

a dictator . his fall. and beginning of a way. one of films who could be defined as puzzle of memories. because the run, the fear, the dialogues, the transformation and the last scene are pieces from a wise manner to reflect reality on screen who has few brilliant examples in Eastern films. not exactly a national school but a great cinematography. slices from Repetance of Abuladze or Tarkovsky's universe, splendid exploration of detail, the air who becomes material and the scene of home return, the beach and the arguments of young man, the fight with the past, in words, looks and intentions, each, all define a film who could be real discovered in its profound sense - the artistic side is only one from them - for the public who preserves in his personal past slices from a dictatorship.

A dictator falls into a position of traitor in his country as the result of social conflictional rebel. That unnamed country metaphorizes any dictatorship regyme in the real world. The president faces the cruelty, poverty and madness which are caused by his despotic politics. What an irony of truth is that Iranian Director Makhmalbaf had to shoot the film in Georgia and Tajikistan because of conservative preventions of Iranian governments. The president is really a brilliant movie and it indicates Makhmalbaf's top level of directorship experience.

It seems as if the Georgian setting of his latest film "The President" hasn't bothered Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The ease and familiarity with which he has directed his film in a foreign land makes all his loyal viewers believe that he has always lived there. Based on a screenplay for which Makhmalbaf contributed with this wife Merziyeh Meshkini, there is hardly any dull moment in this film about an old dictator who is forced to confront all those who were subjugated by him. The entire film is faster than the fastest roller coaster ride through its principal focus on allowing a dictator to explore all escape routes once his government has been overturned. "The President" is suitable for viewing by people of all ages as both young children as well as their old partners would continue to view a dictatorial government with utmost suspicion. For Mohsen Makhmalbaf, "The President" is a modern fable about power, reconciliation and the hope for breaking a never ending circle of violence while exploring the possibility of stopping the violence after a revolution in search of democracy and freedom.

Silence against cruelty only helps tyranny to become stronger, even worse than the worst dictator is the people who remain silent in his reign of terror. The president (2014) is poetic, poignant and precise.