Fasle kargadan

While no one doubts the magnificent cinematography, there is much more about this brilliant masterpiece comparable to the works of great masters such as Angelopoulos. Although the movie events happen in Iran, they are all about universal themes such as love, jealousy, destruction and the desperate search to discover the meaning of the Being.

The Iranian revolution and its destructive impact upon the society, the pandemic injustice that the revolution promised to end but did not and yet exacerbated, the hostile environment and its impact upon the afflicted families, are all depicted with rigor and with poetic images, rather than with cliché dialog and rhetoric. The movie manages to keep an appropriate pace letting the scenes find their desired depth and yet avoiding boredom, and the performances are brilliant. What more would you expect from a movie anyway than to show you innovative images and to share a new kind of experience with you, which you would have had to pay a great price to experience it first hand? A master piece 10/10.

There are so many fascinating and compelling aspects to this movie which I have now watched twice.

First of all, it has nothing to do with Rhinos or indeed with Martin Scorcese. It says he presents the movie, whatever that means. He is no way involved with the directing of this movie which is directed by a man named Bahman Ghobadi who left his native Iran in 2010 and has never returned.

This is a love-triangle, a husband and wife and a third party (the driver)centred not so much around the poetry of the husband but around the fixations of love of the driver for the wife and its consequences over a 30 year period. Ghobadi has publicly stated that if he were in the shoes of Sahel, he could not tell his wife he was still alive after 30 years if she believed him to be dead.

This is a far more meaningful film than 'Argo' in reference to the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its aftermath but I do not think the film is really about that, it is not a political movie in any way though politics played its part in the storyline.

You will want to watch the film more than once for sure - to ponder who is/was the father of the two young girls, did Sahel really sleep with one of them, how come Sahel could not recognize the man who was Mina's driver, the marvellous short scene when leeches were used to suck blood from Sahel and his associates, the prison sex scenes, the turtles scene, and what pact, if any, was horrifyingly agreed between Sahel and the driver towards the end.

Bear in mind this that whereas 'Argo' was a Hollywood blockbuster produced with a huge budget,'Rhino Season' was not, an independent production on low budget and to such degree that none of the actors involved, including Monica Bellucci, were paid for their work.

The participation in the film of Monica Bellucci and of the man who played Sahel is remarkable in itself. Sahel's Actor, Behrouz Vossoughi, is himself a man in exile for more than 30 years. He barely if ever speaks in this movie but his acting is evocative enough.

I still wonder who Mina was meeting and the boy who rode the motor cycle, the same boy Sahel played a game with in the Cafe.

It is not clear why the film is called 'Rhino Season' but there are clues throughout for the viewer to make up their own mind. Alas, Persian Cats and Turtles in two previous films is indicative of the mindset of a Director who loves animals more than people (so he apparently said anyway.

'Not without my Daughter' was a while back and 'A Separation' was another Iranian movie worthy of praise. This movie is something else. It is no blockbuster but it is beautifully filmed and directed, well acted and produced and in my opinion it is a mastercraft of a movie. It is such a pity that the movie has not been exposed to a wider audience.

I do wonder who the movie is aimed at. Most people outside of Iran have perhaps never heard of the Iranian Poet Sahel Fauzan and know little if anything about the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Even if they have heard of him, they know nothing of his poetry and will not readily relate reference to the title 'Rhino Season'. People in Iran will not be able to watch it inside their own country. Perhaps only Muslims or anyone associated with Islamic culture will truly understand the ultimate message of the film.

Yes, it is a slow, boring movie but that should not belie the fact that everything about this movie is of the highest standard and do not always judge a book by its cover.

My country ravaged by a bunch of sadists. Everything that happens to me & millions of others. Have been living in Exile for 35 years. Lives destroyed, a generation displaced & destroyed by mullahs. Too much pain & misery

This is easily Ghobadi's best film--the metaphors and imagery pull together his other films into what is his masterwork. Very haunting, somewhat surreal-as the former prisoner tries to find his wife the events of his life are accompanied by metaphors from his poems brought to life. Bellucci is incredible. I never expected such a subdued and dignified performance from her. Perhaps one of the best scenes is when the young poet is tied up and tortured and a rain of turtles falls from the sky. Caner Cindoruk is also quite good as the young poet--and his rival and tormentor Yilmaz Erdogan is convincing as the man obsessed with his wife--despite his evil (he is the source for the poet's family's suffering), he manages to be both loathsome and sympathetic at the same time.

This is a masterpiece, much is written before me by a friend from UK. It now falls in the coveted list that i possess of , ashes and snow, the fountain, book 1, tree of life, outside Satan, and much much much more for that if you have reached till here and found me and are hungry for true art then ping me on abhinavsaxena31@gmail.com . This movie is perfect do you understand cinematography coupled with aesthetics and a gloom of lost love, waiting and patience.This has it all. I am no fan of poetry but this piece it is visual poetry. I am in love with this work unfortunately there is not much cinema from this geography in India and i only get it from net. I want to watch more work like this and i guess even the director will agree what he made is heavenly. Watch it again when you feel like. The poetry is the soul. Its a sublime fabric of mystic understanding of creative life. there is a horse which enters a car window, there are turtles there is some sex which will leave you ever smitten because it is m.b the goddess herself. all in all there is no message of god here but pure art... Cheers to creative flame of life