Shahr-e ziba

The slow, endless Iranian art films, so omnipresent in film festivals since the 80s, are by now, an either love it or hate it proposition. I now fall into the hate it category, jaded and bored by their sheer numbers, similarity of themes, characters, boring landscapes, and slow pace.

However, I do still see a couple every year to confirm, or review my perception of them. Besides, one can't judge all Iranian art films in a certain light, though the art form does tend to make the viewer take those extreme positions. So, I saw this film (called "Beautiful City")here - the name of the juvenile detention center the main character comes from. I found it entertaining and fresh, though the drab scenery and sameness of themes, landscapes, and characters are there.

It's an interesting (and again, entertaining, not endless like most) look at parts of Iranian society not often shown. These include delinquent youth, drug dealers and their hoods, the very negotiable (economically and religiously) Islamic death penalty, and prostitution on various levels.

I wonder whether films like this are shown in Iran? Of course, the masses would never run to see this movie. And obviously, all these Iranian films are intended for foreign (mostly western viewing), particularly at festivals. But I wonder whether anybody can just show up at a cinema and see it, or is it shown at semi-private showings for a select audience. If it is, how can this distorted Islamic government continue?

Anyway, that's the most interesting point of the film. It shows (whether true or not) that the government in Iran is not that Islamic, not that intolerant, somewhat democratic. But the society, under those black clothes, and automatic "God is great" messages, is as corrupt as the world's most corrupt, and more purely capitalistic than the social democratic capitalism we have today.

In the film, everything, from death sentences to pardons, from marriages to an opportunity for a life-saving medical operation, not to mention drugs and people, can be bought and sold with Tomans (Iranian cash).

Farhadi and alidoosti's second and in my opinion best film. The film belongs to the time that he was interested in poor class people lives and hasn't shifted to intellectual middle class people. The only weakness of this film is its somehow tv like atmosphere and the reason is that Farhadi was new in cinema and before that had directed and written lots of TV masterpieces. Actually this film was one episode of his tv serie 'the story of a city," but because af its really dark and bitter story, he didn't get approval.

Every single film by Asghar Farhadi has beautifully captured a different section of Iranian society & Beautiful City is no different. The title referring to a juvenile detention center, Beautiful City tells the tale of A'la, whose friend Akbar has just turned eighteen which means he will be executed soon for the crime he committed two years ago. Knowing that Akbar has repented enough in the two years, has a good heart & doesn't deserve this punishment, A'la gets out of that place and later, accompanied by Akbar's sister Firoozeh, tries his best in persuading the victim's father to spare the boy from certain death.

The movie also shows that no matter how restrictive a society is, money can buy everything, including life & death. As the movie progresses, we find out that the lives of these characters aren't as transparent as we assumed in the beginning and the story slowly becomes a gritty examination of moral & human complexities and no character is spared from making a life-altering choice.

Covering the themes of love, corruption, sacrifice, forgiveness and how the confinements of society & religion sometimes stops a person from going with what the heart desires, Beautiful City is another thought-provoking cinema from Farhadi with a universal appeal that, in the end, may leave you little lost but you'll come around eventually. Also, it was after this film that Farhadi started crafting one masterpiece after another, so if you've seen his later films before this one, like I did, I suggest that you don't have the expectations of Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly or A Separation from this film.

I really love the tale because in this story you cannot confidently judge which character is rightful.

P.S: "Shahr-e-ziba" Which's been translated to "Beautiful City" is a neighborhood in western Tehran in which the prison of -18 poisoners is located.

In the west, there are occasional cries for so-called "victim's justice", where the person who suffers from a crime has a say in the treatment of the criminal: this deceptively simple film looks at how such a system works where it's actually practiced, under Islamic law in Iran. At first, the movie's set-up seems primitive, and there seems to be undue absence of emphasis on the crime itself: the immediately sympathetic characters all claim that their friend, a murderer, "doesn't deserve to die", but this is merely asserted and never proved. But as the film proceeds, it becomes clear that this is not the point: instead we see how, with the final verdict put in the hands of the dead person's father, responsibility for the killer's fate in passed onto those (both the father and also those who must plead with him for clemency) who cannot deal with it, and who will find no closure through being asked to take it on. The film's depiction of the role of women in an Islamic society is also perceptive and interesting. The subtle ending perfectly concludes a quiet tragedy that ultimately delivers more than is promised at the start.