(2015) Parole/ Azadi-ye mashroot
(In Persian with English subtitles)
PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA
If anyone can get over the first hour then the last half hour can be quite rewarding. Kind of a subtle tone and baffling first hour as a result of figuring out who's who, that required me to use a notepad to jot names down. The other obstacle that I had was not being too familiar with Iranian laws and customs.
Written and directed by Hossein Mahkam that has doctor/ therapist, Khosrow Ehtesham (Rambod Javan) attempting to make suggestions in helping his sister and single mother of one, Mojdeh Ehtesham-nia (Hengameh Ghaziani) to get her teenage delinquent teenage son, Saeed (Alireza Mozafari) on parole. And he is put on a detention center with Mr. Bakhsdar (Shahrokh Foroutanian) being in charge as a result of something he did while he was in school. Also involved in attempting to get Saeed's parole release is Mojdeh's friend who happens to be a lawyer, Majid Masoud (Alireza Aghakhani). It becomes complicated which as soon as Saeed is granted parole, and there is a celebration with some popular dishes, it is not long before he runs away by escaping through the bathroom window and taking his uncle Khosrow's car. The four celebrating this reunion then go on a panic and search for him. He is eventually found but from Khosrow's assistant, Asef (Mohammad Kart) as soon as he met up with him as he is going to his place of residence. And requests him not to call or tell either his parents or the police where he is. Asef notices Saeed's arm has been bandaged up as upon his escape gave some indication that he may have tried to take his own life after blood stains were discovered on a bath tub. Kohosrow asked Asif to wipe up Saeed then gets Asef to drive him away and hide him, except that his best friend, Yaghoub (Mohammad Ali Kiani) does not want to get involve as soon as a murder of the lawyer, Majid is announced, giving viewers the assumption Saeed may have done it since his arm has been bandaged. And when authorities do catch up with him, we do want to know what happened.
Aforementioned at the top, I thought it was way too talky and that the characters of who they are brought me much confusion. But after hanging on to it, and satisfied that my assumptions were not correct, I was quite happy with the ending that it had, with the character Mr. Bakhsdar played by Shahrokh Foroutanian as the person in charge of the detention center stealing the entire movie with a great frank and mature discussion between him and Saeed as he is driving him to his mother.
