After seeing the excellent Skin (2020-also reviewed) mix the Iran New Wave with magical realism,I decided to check the credits of co-writers/co-directors Bahman and Bahram Ark. Discovering that the short the Ark's made before doing their feature film debut with Skin was online,I went in search of the animal.
View on the film:
Clawing into the line shared between animals and mankind that they would continue to explore later in their feature film, co-writing/co-director brothers Bahman & Bahram Ark's stylishly twist the dark Fantasy of a man dressing up as a ram, into allegorical Body-Horror, via a earthy atmosphere pulled in rugged first-person tracking shots, and gushes of blood across the screen, reflecting the animalistic treatment inflicted on migrating people.
Cutting the fence with bolt cutters, the screenplay by the Ark's keep the movie dialogue-free,with only the odd fragment of sound from the TV offering a human voice. The Ark's bring a vivid dialogue out in the non-verbal communication of the unnamed man, who digs into a struggle to disguise himself as a ram, in the shadow of the towering/ oppressive border fence.
