Mahi va gorbeh

A truly exceptional and extraordinary film that was both compelling and technically brilliant. Much like Alexander Sokurov's 2002 film Russian Ark, this film is shot in one single, continuous take that lasts, in this case, over two hours in length. That's enough to make it a technical marvel, but better is that Shahram Mokri manages to make a tantalising tale in the process.

The film starts by relating the urban legend of restaurants in the north of Iran which were shut down due to serving human flesh. Then the single shot begins and we follow two men from a suitably ominous restaurant attempting to coax some lost travellers to dine there. It's a fairly obvious beginning, and the insidious tension is high from the start.

However from there, the tale (and the shot) meanders much more than we might expect. We branch off to follow different characters for a while, then we catch up with old ones. Then, we start to see scenes which are oddly familiar—we end up in cycles, in loops of time that all seem to flow so naturally from one to the other. And there's always that underlying sinister element— we know something bad is going to happen from that first moment of the film, but we don't quite know when.

This is all the hook it needed for me to keep me captivated through this tale. And I was captivated throughout—this was riveting stuff, even as we watch the most mundane conversations between two characters, and then repeat them again from a slightly different angle some time later.

In the discussion after the showing of the film, the director stated fairly unequivocally that he wasn't influenced by any Iranian directors in particular, but as far as I'm concerned there are huge similarities to two of Jafar Panahi's films—the meandering storytelling of Dayereh, which also follows a sequence of different characters, and Closed Curtain (an excellent film I saw at the festival in 2013), which has that same sense of understated mystery and foreboding.

This really was an excellent film—it was ground-breaking and avant-garde in all the best ways possible, and used its uniqueness as a brilliant hook to enhance its appeal.

Strongly recommended. If you are looking for a meaningful full movie full of symbols, this is the one.

well this movie was a complete waste of time. i don't know why it had been given so many prizes intentionally? It's boring as hell and it's not even like a horror movie.there were so much buzz about this movie that i was excited to watch it but i was bored 10 minutes in. It seems the director wanted to make a horror movie but failed to do so.it's a big problem in Iranian cinema. the directors just don't know how to make a good horror movie like Hollywood does.just following the people with a camera and blurting out nonsense dialogues won't make a movie good enough to watch.this movie didn't even followed a certain rule.it was like you are following a bunch of clueless people going around. Don't waste your time. go and watch something else.

Very beautiful.

The whole movie is a plan . A long sequence without cut but no boring moment . This story inspired by a true story about a restaurant that they cooked with human flesh.

I really liked it.

Just to balance all the other over-enthusiastic reviews:

It is indeed a very well made feature, with some very clever cinematographic ideas, however it gives a two hours of very mundane viewing experience, of a couple of guys walking around the forest, having a very non-interesting conversations or sometimes telling fantastic stories, without their merit, deeper meaning or literary qualities being apparent to me. It was interesting to see Iran's modern middle-class youth, which rarely is a subject of Iranian films. However there was no character development, any kind of psychological or social commentary. One spends most of time trying to piece together the meaning of conversations that are just part of their lives, and to figure out if some point was intended by the director in any given scene, or not?

We were utterly bored, staying in the cinema only to see how the director could solve the end. The end scene is truly beautiful though!