Fasle kargadan

It is obvious why Monica Bellucci was hired to play a prominent role in Bahman Ghobadi's latest flick. Local (middle-east) stars won't dare to show their skin in front of the camera, it may end in controversy like Lebanese skier caused controversy over topless photo during the Sochi winter Olympics. Though adding the major Italian star who is known very well to the world made the movie to strike stronger.

I don't know I felt I knew this story well from somewhere. At least it looked very similar to other movies I had seen beside divergent characters. Like the movie 'Oldboy' this movie depicts an old man who was away for a long time who enters the familiar but changed society in search of his lost family.

They say it was loosely based on the story of a real person, but I feel it is fiction because real people won't behave like the character from this movie. Anything might be possible, but this movie was lacking in either character or story development. The cinematography was awesome, it had a pleasant frame tone with greenish-gray.

The director thought to bring more artistic effect by adding inappropriate scenes to the story. There are many scenes where viewers may respond in questions to those parts. In one of the scenes turtle rains and in another a wild rhino hit by a car. It goes on like that, like illusions during illustrate a person.

It tells the story of a man who is affected by the 1979 Iranian revolution. Yeah, the same revolution that showed the movie 'Argo' but in a different perspective and character. Overall, it was not a movie that I was expecting from Bahman Ghobadi, but still it can be enjoyed by his fans.

Presented by Martin Scorsese, 'Rhino Season' is the 6th full-length film by Bahman Ghobadi. Following his success with 'No One Knows About the Persian Cats' which earned him international recognition, Ghobadi's first non-Iranian production features an international cast. Old-timer Iranian Superstar, Behrouz Vosoughi returns to the screen after more than 20 years off the grid. He is joined by Italian Femme Fetale Monica Belucci, and a number of Prominent Turkish Actors and Actresses, namely Yilmaz Erdogan.

Shot entirely in Turkey, the movie follows the ordeals of Sahel, a Kurdish-Iranian Poet, whose poems were misconstrued by the post-revolution regime of Iran as political, and landed him in Jail for 30 Years. After he is released from Jail, he travels to Turkey in search of his wife (played by Monicca Belucci) who is now remarried.

It's loosely based on a true story, and the movie paints a realistic picture of a post-revolution Iran, in the hands of the vengeful servants of the Shah regime. Even Sahel's jail sentence is revealed to have had little to do with his poetry.

The movie's primary language is Farsi, but there is little dialog going on altogether. Monica Belucci speaks a few lines of Farsi quite decently, but Yilmaz Erdogan doesn't do a great job. Obviously the reason behind his wasn't his Farsi-Speaking skills, but the fact that no Iranian actor hoping to keep his permission to act inside Iran, would ever consider doing a movie that depicts a half-naked Belucci. Behrouz Vosoughi's role has even less dialog, and mostly consists of smoking a cigarette in various gorgeous scenery.

The locations were chosen brilliantly, and the camera work is exceptional. Several scenes in the movie are shot solely for the purpose of accompanying an off-camera poetry recital, and are perhaps of great appeal to poetry lovers.

Other than that, the story unravels with a slow pace, and leaves the ending entirely up to the viewer. The acting is decent minus the Farsi accents, and the Soundtrack, while minimal, creates an appropriate atmosphere. If you enjoyed most of Ghobadi's work, you will enjoy this one too, but most people can agree that it's not his best. Nothing is particularly wrong with this movie, but nothing is particularly right either.

Yilmaz Erdogan's worst movie I've seen after Kin. I couldn't relate ourselves to the lead role in any way. I can give two points to the movie, which is completely messy, just because there is a lot of effort.

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.

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.