Turquoise

Alfred Hitchcock coined the term "McGuffin" to describe an object that propels the plot and motivates the characters into a search for said object, while JJ Abrams has sited that the "mystery box" works because not knowing what lies inside is more powerful than actually knowing. Whoever designed the black box in TURQUOISE knows two things: people's lives are hard and people will do anything under extreme circumstances in order to rise their status. The people of these town are promised prosperity if they find the box and return it to the address indicated by a public broadcast. These villagers plant rise and live in a cold and desolate part of Iran under poverty and hardship. When they are told that a simple box can solve all their problems, they quickly give into their most primal instincts of survival. Survival of the fittest, mob mentality and greed drive them to find the box and then to take it from each other. These close-knit community of humble farmers becomes a savage mob, willing to do anything, even murder if it means having a better life. This is something that the makers of the box know will happen, they want it to happen. They know exactly what people are capable of when they are desperate and they are told that their lives can change with ease. However, at no point do these people are told that they must resort to murder, or that only one person can be prosperous, they don't even know if the reward exists. People simply assume that the reward exists and that they cannot share the price. If the purpose of the box was to see how people can turn against each other, then whoever they are they have deep insights into how society can crumble overnight and they have this down to a science. Morad (Reza Amouzad) manages to outwit his fellow villagers and takes the box to the address indicated. Once there, he discovers a factory where hundreds of boxes are mass produced and he is given a uniform and is sent to bury another box at a village not unlike his. These systems of control require people who are willing to shed their humanity and who are capable of turning against their own in order to enforce and perpetuate their existence. The Police and the Army are formed by people who leave behind their civilian status and who are given shelter and food by the powerful in exchange of suppressing their own people. For these systems to exist, they must recruit those who are willing to do anything if they want to rise above their former status. In a way, the box works almost like a lottery that helps find the one person who is the most willing to enforce this system and carry out the will of the powerful. However, they have refined their methods, they don't require armies or troops to execute entire villages overnight, and they only need to take advantage of the hunger and desperation of the lesser and sit back and see how they kill each other. More and more we keep seeing world leaders using this tactic to turn people against each other, all they have to do is promise them that they and they alone can solve their problems with minimum effort, but all they have to do is obey their orders and turn against their fellow man. As long as there's poverty and desperation, there will be men like Morad who will do anything to leave all that behind and serve the same people who caused his poverty in the first place. A system feeding on itself.

Directed by Rozbeh Missaghi, TURQUOISE was filmed in Iran under extreme circumstances. Being a follower of Baha'I faith, him and his cast and crew had to shoot in secret in a village in Iran, at the risk of being discovered by the moral police of the Islamic republic. To simply complete the film under these stressful conditions is an achievement on its own, that the film turned out as compelling and as aesthetically accomplished is nothing short of a miracle. TURQUOISE feels methodically planned and is gorgeously shot, taking full advantage of the natural locations which fill the screen. The story itself is intriguing and as a social thesis on the descent of civilization in favor of perpetuating systems of control and oppression, is fascinating film-making. Missaghi and his crew employed cutting-edge film equipment that must have been difficult to obtain and also to hide. The production itself is far bigger than it seems for a short-film, which is why it looks so accomplished on screen. The cinematography by Sama Raoufi is slick and organic, making the film feel larger and cinematic. The entire cast feels authentic, and Reza Amousad becomes the broken heart of the film as he provides Morad with internal conflict behind his eyes, always questioning his own actions and how far he's willing to go but ultimately giving in. The violence is cleverly shot, it always takes place off-frame, but the sound design helps us imagine the gruesome fates of the villagers at each other's hands. Finally, the concept itself is intriguing, this is a true thriller in short-film form, never wasting a single frame to tell its story. Shot under normal circumstances, it would have still been a remarkable achievement, but under the impossible scenario the filmmakers found themselves in, this is transcendent cinema.

It reminds old Balkan stories. Because it is realistic portrait of greed and the esence of evil behind it. A village. A treasure. A wave of murders. Digging the field. And a sortof Iago, more lucky, stressed and cold blood. A box and the reality around it. The film has the great virtue to be support for reflection about human condition. About beginnings, again and again, about fear and power, about the high price of a sort of fake happiness. Impecable crafted, a pure masterpiece, not surprising for contemporary Iranian cinematography.