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SILENCE
BETWEEN TWO THOUGHTS
5+/10
Sokote
beine do feks : Iran 2003 : Babak PAYAMI : 95 mins
Close-up
of a young man. He is fumbling around with an object in his lap, but we
cannot see what it is. He lifts it – a rifle. He shoots at something,
then lowers the rifle. Still it is a close-up, still more fumbling, then
the rifle up, another shot. A voice tells him to stop. “She’s supposed
to be a virgin”. The camera draws back as it starts to pan. We see a thin
figure against a wall and two bundles on the ground. All this in one long
take – a cinematic masterpiece! If you execute a virgin she will go to
heaven, a criminal will go to hell. This sentence is the point of departure
for this film. A film that thoroughly confronts all forms of fundamentalism.
The actions goes on in the border areas between Iran and Afghanistan.
The Iranian government confiscated the film, and Babak Payami spent a
brief time in prison because of it.
(from official Tromsø 2004 Film Festival programme)
FIPRESCI
informs
At the Tromsø
International Film Festival (Norway, high up in the North, January 13-18,
2004) the
Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) will tonight be awarded
to "Silence
Between Two Thoughts" (Sokout beyne do fekr) by Babak Payami (Iran,
2003).
The jury
has beem comprised of:
Shahla
Nahid, France
Neil
Young, UK
Charlotte
Munch, Norway.
Klaus
Eder
Fédération
Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique (FIPRESCI)
Sunday, 18th
January, 2004
A
Miracle in Tromso
Babak Payami’s
third feature, Silence Between Two Thoughts, was in retrospect
a brave film to program at 8.30pm on a Friday night in downtown Tromso,
this most "party-minded" of Norwegian cities. As the title indicates,
this is a cerebral, challenging, ambitious film which an impatient viewer
could misinterpret as pretentious, its careful pace laying
Payami open to accusations of "slowness" and "ponderousness"
- hence
the numerous walk-outs, which certainly didn’t aid the film-watching
experience of those who chose to remain in their seats.
But the hasty
folk who headed out into the chilly air for the more raucous delights
of "Blue Rock Cafe" may now ‘repent at leisure.’ Certainly the
audience for the 11.30am showing the next morning - of whom only two exited
prematurely - would be quick to point out the strengths
within Payami’s film, which, although demanding, amply rewards whatever
work the viewer is willing to expend.
Payami takes
an ambitiously oblique approach to narrative, purposefully and persistently
withholding information, and with many of the key events taking place
just outside the edge of the frame. With the air of a universal fable,
the film unfolds in an unspecified, semi-desert landscape
(born in Tehran, Payami grew up in Afghanistan, and shot this film very
near to the ill-fated Iranian city of Bam).
The narrative
is simple, and a brutal editor could no doubt condense the plot to less
than a third of the film’s 95-minute running-time: a young soldier working
for Haji, a charismatic tribal leader, executes two men. But just as he
is aiming his Kalashnikov at the third condemned person, a stay of execution
is imposed by Haji. It turns out that the "criminal"is a virgin
woman, and to kill her would send her soul to heaven instead of hell.
Haji’s interpretation of scriptural law comes up with a cruel solution:
the executioner must marry his "victim" ... who he would then,
presumably, have to execute following the consummation of their union.
But Haji’s plan is imperilled by the encroachment of wider forces,
and also by the resistance from the unwilling "happy couple."
Payami takes
an original, idiosyncratic approach to some issues which can seldom have
been more pressing: religious dogmatism is his main target, and his rigorous,
austere approach is unwavering in its treatment of injustice and exploitation.
The dialogue is as sparse as the drought-ravaged landscape, but Payami
invests each word with enormous meaning and power. His control of images
and sound - and their interaction - is no less economic, his camera often
tracking with painstaking care over indoor and outdoor environments (the
stunning opening shot audaciously clocks in at over ten minutes), at other
times remaining fixed on certain tableaux until the viewer gradually deciphers
the various symbolic elements, and/or penetrates into the deeper levels
of meaning behind the seemingly barren surfaces.
The crucial
importance of these images wasn’t helped by the fact that Tromso had to
screen a print converted from 35mm to DVD - the result of the film having
been banned by Iran’s authorities, and the best prints having been confiscated.
As Payami himself remarked before the second screening, being able to
present Silence Between Two Thoughts at all was "a
miracle" in itself: its success in Tromso with both the public and
the
critics indicates that this is a "miracle" whose conclusion
has yet to
be reached.
Neil
Young
(with
assistance from fellow-jurors Charlotte Glaser Munch and Shahla Nahid)
© FIPRESCI
2004
18th
January, 2004
(seen 17th January : Fokus Cinema, Tromsø – Tromsø
International Film Festival)
article reproduced
from www.fipresci.org 3rd
February 2004
click
here for a full list of reviewed films
from the Tromsø International Film Festival 2004
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