"Oblivion Verses" is a quiet film that probably slipped under the radar of most English speaking audiences, but it's well worth the watch. Presented in very picturesque, very stationary shots (there is practically no camera movement), it's almost like a series of living postcards through which we follow an old man's strange quest.
Our protagonist (who has no name) is an old man who works at a small village morgue. He and his coworker, a gravedigger, spend their workdays recounting the stories of the dead whom they have buried, 1000 in total. Then one day a 1001st body mysteriously shows up: the corpse of a young woman who was murdered by the government-sponsored militia. Our nameless hero realizes it's just a matter of time before the militia comes back to grab the body and dump her in a mass unmarked grave in the hills. So he takes it upon himself, as his last act before shutting down the morgue, to give her a proper burial. It's not easy.
Although there are elements of violence (all handled off-camera) as well as an overtly morbid and disturbing theme, the film is surprisingly poetic and nostalgic. The stillness of the camera forces us to pay attention to the entire field of view, not just what the camera wants us to see, as conventional pans & zooms would dictate. And the slow moving pace--literally 'slow moving' as the old man hobbles about somewhat rheumatically--causes us to absorb every detail and hang on every word that is said.
Although the plot is very interesting, almost like a murder mystery thriller, you shouldn't approach this as a straightforward plot-driven Hollywood type movie. The power of this film is in the small details and excellent script. I absolutely loved the conversations between the old man and the grave digger. They add some fun comedic spice and deadpan strangeness. In a weird way it reminded me of the banter between John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson playing 2 hired killers in "Pulp Fiction", except here we have a pair of old timers chatting as they plant dead bodies in the ground.
Visually it's a feast. Every detail seems to be meticulously laid out for us, especially in the indoor scenes like the bureaucrat's office which is magnificently cluttered with books, papers and alarm clocks that keep ringing (though he can never remember why). If you notice things like dramatic lighting and shadows, you'll be blown away at the morgue scenes and a really fun scene in the morgue library: a labyrinthine tangle of aisles and shelves where you need a long piece of string to find your way out of. Other shots of exteriors and the cemetery are enormous and open. I really meant it when I compared this film to a series of postcards.
This quiet, motionless style of filmmaking reminded me of the European masters Bela Tarr, Emir Kusturica, and even some of Milos Forman's early work ("The Firemen's Ball"), or if you're familiar with modern Japanese cinema think of Takeshi Kitano ("Fireworks", "A Scene at the Sea"). An American comparison might be the early work of Mike Nichols ("Catch-22"). However this film is a true original. This is director Alireza Khatami's debut feature, and I have to say it's one of the most impressive directoral debuts I've seen.
