There is delicious irony in the news that Jafar Panahi, pioneer of the Iranian new wave, has only become more prolific in the years following his house arrest. This is Not a Film was among the most praised releases of 2013. Taxi won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.
Those twisty, fecund films form bookends to the less digestible Closed Curtain. A forbidding narrative exercise, the film intersperses moment of great humour and power with indulgent follies that will strain the patience of all but the most resilient viewers.
It’s hardly worth synopsising the plot, but we’ll give it a go. Kamboziya Partovi (himself a distinguished director) plays a writer who has travelled to a house on the Caspian Sea for a period of creative seclusion. He has concealed his charming dog in a holdall to evade the attentions of religious zealots hunting down “unclean” animals. After a day or so, a young woman bursts in and asks for shelter from pursuing police officers. He lets her in, but cryptic remarks suggest she may not be who she claims.
Later on, in a moment that leans to Brecht, Pirandello and Godard, Panahi himself turns up with his crew and begins to interact with his characters. The theatrical games are often intriguing. Panahi has much fun with mirrors - boldly allowing them to reflect the film-makers we initially missed - and makes good use of the house as an analogy for the writer’s pinned-down mind. (Something Beckett might also be doing in Endgame.) The performance of “Boy” as the dog is among the best canine turns of the year.
I saw the film as an attempt to show how everyday experiences become processed into story. Panahi notices events in and about his villa - a man passes with a dog; a woman calls by mysteriously - and then shuffles them about the part of his brain that creates scenarios. Some of these incidents deserved to stay in the mix. Too many others did not.
