Le rapport

Released in it's native Iran in 1977 this is an early feature film from writer/director Abbas Kiarostami, made prior to the Iranian Revolution (when all the men seemed to have moustaches). It's a social drama - shot in a realist style - focusing on the life of a Tehran tax inspector called Mahmad who has been accused of corruption and whose marriage to his wife Azam is starting to unravel. This issue and theme led drama is not just a kind of report on a philandering tax inspector (who is also a wife beater) but also a report on middle class urban Iranian society at the time, with arguments about money, discussion of bribes, and a lingering feeling of corruption. At home the constant domestic bickering reaches a crisis point when Azam attempts suicide. No wonder their little daughter Behnooche - in a triple take scene - picks up the telephone receiver and bawls into it. Other highlights include some philosophising in a bar, and an ambiguous end. Some subtitles appear not to have been translated.

The Iranian movie Gozaresh (1977) was shown in the U.S. with the title The Report. It was written and directed by Abbas Kiarostami.

*Important* We saw the film as a special feature in the Criterion Collection's edition of Copie conforme (Certified Copy). All of the original prints were destroyed. What we see is, in essence, a copy of a copy, and the quality is very poor. (It took about ten minutes for me to realize that the film was in color.) It's hard to watch a movie when the print is so bad. Still, I appreciate Criterion for making it available.

This was only Kiarostami's second movie, and he certainly wasn't yet the great director that he would become. Still, the movie had some qualities that made it interesting.

Shohreh Aghdashloo portrays a loser who acts as if he were a winner. He works in the tax office, which gives him a certain arbitrary power over citizens, but early in the movie we learn that he's accused of bribery. (We never learn if he did, indeed, demand bribes. My guess, based on his behavior, is that he did.)

It's subtle, but we see him at a casino at one point, which may be director Kiarostami's way of telling us that he has gambling debts.

An order of eviction is served on him, and his response is, "The law says that they can't evict us for at least two years." No sense that he might actually pay the rent.

He's married to an attractive, caring wife (Kurosh Afsharpanah), whom he dominates. He has a young daughter, for whom he seems to care. However, his wife and he bicker about money continually.

There's a long scene in a restaurant/bar, where people talk about honesty, but that scene drags on. It might have more than the obvious symbolic meaning, but I couldn't find it.

This is a movie that I would only recommend if you own the Criterion Collection version of Certified Copy, and if you're particularly interested in Iranian cinema. It has an IMDb rating of 6.9, with which I agreed. I rated it 7.

I never wrote a review but I will keep this short. If you're intrested on what was it like back then then watch it. My grandmother is Iranian and she said it's accurate. Even the dialogue sound like something you would hear from a normal conversation.

Not one of Abbas Kiarostami's best works among his 18 feature films. This was his fourth film made before the Islamic revolution. Therefore, you see women with uncovered heir, men wearing neckties, and men drinking beer and vodka in small pubs in Iran.

The film can be split into two halves. The first deals with corruption in collection of property taxes in the Shah ruled Iran's Ministry of Finance with the junior administrators demanding bribes from the public, drinking tea rather than doing productive work, with suggestions of immoral night life activity of the clerks, along with gambling dens/casinos. Was it director Dariush Mehrjui playing a slot machine at a casino smoking a cigarette without saying a word with the "The Report's" lead actor Kurosh Afsharpanah requesting a light from him? The sequence is not very short, it seemed to have been added with some reason by the director. Was Kiarostami trying to say something?

The second half of the film deals with the breaking family life of the corrupt young clerk in the Ministry of Finance. The wife is played by the beautiful and talented Shohreh Agdashloo. who left Iran to work and live in USA. She was rewarded with an Oscar nomination for her role In "The House of Sand and Fog." In many ways, the actress is the highlight of the film, representing the intelligent, morally upright and domestically abused women in many parts of the Muslim world. She plays a character opposite of what her husband represents, abusive, corrupt and irresponsible individuals who want to get easy money without working hard and adopting high and mighty attitudes towards their superiors who are just. This second half allows Kiarostami's original screenplay to discuss the problems of the elderly folks in Iranian families (during a car conversation) , The rising cost of imported cars from Europe in Iran are discussed. Also stated is the importance of being honest and being respected for money earned honestly.

A film with an open ending. But the title of the Film "The Report" is incongruous with tale of the film.