Title: Life Before Death
When we hear the name of the movie Deep Breath, we subconsciously think of our normal breathing, but the deep breath that refers to our health is not what we are thinking of. The deep breath that is being talked about is the breath that we are in right now, and we are so disappointed and suffocating that life has become meaningless to us.
This situation can be reminiscent of the film Taste of Cherry, in which Abbas Kiarostami dealt with the suicide and despair of Mr. Badiei, and this time Parviz Shahbazi has dealt more with this crisis in the film Deep Breath.
The story of the film revolves around the 70s, and the film begins right when we encounter the scene of two characters drowning who are rescued by divers. There is a jump cut where we realize that Mansour and Kamran are two friends from the lower class of society, who do not have a good economic situation and are disappointed with life. They steal cars and mobile phones under the pretext of life, and at the same time they meet a girl named Aida, whom Mansour likes and visits every day, and they gradually become more intimate. This is where the story of the film departs from the classic rules and continues its narrative in a minimal structure.
Although Deep Breath is not supposed to pursue a specific goal and create conflicts, we witness the events of the story, in the end Mansour faces Kamran's death and does not go to Aida, and Aida loses her units; then after a while Mansour goes to Aida and they decide to go north under the pretext of being carefree in life, and when they stop, we witness an indirect ending, what actually happened to Mansour and Aida? Where did their fate end? Did they continue on their way or did they die? With a guess, we realize the death of the two characters, which ultimately ends the film.
We can talk about the presence of the actors, each of whom is young and seeking fame, who left an artistic and valuable image in this film.
- Maryam Palizban in the role of Aida, who is an art student and is interested in music; she lives her life, but gradually she forgets how to live and enters another world
- Mansour Shahbazi in the role of Mansour, who is from the lower strata of society, has a motivation to live in some way, and we can see a lovable and knowledgeable image of him.
- Saeed Amini in the role of Kamran, who, like Mansour, is from the lower strata of society, has an introverted personality and always rejects himself from life and survival by showing himself weak.
Each of the characters in the film, just like Mr. Badiei, bears scars from society.
Although Deep Breath has a minimalist structure and pays less attention to aesthetic criteria in form, we can see a small trace of aesthetics by looking at the details in the film.
- Images in which we see a comprehensive frame of the 70s and convey a feeling of suffocation and cold, the color blue, which symbolizes life, can even be a threat to death, frames that show the characters' innermost selves and turn scenes of the city into a kind of background where even shapes can be seen clearly, and also the music that mostly moves away from the atmosphere of life and death in the film and narrates another world.
By mentioning all the features of the film, the filmmaker's attempt to show an understanding of a disillusioned society where many people commit suicide and reject life can be understood by later generations.
