The Beautiful City [Shah-re ziba] (Farhadi, 2004)

[madali]

The Beautiful City [Shah-re ziba] (Asghar Farhadi, 2004)

I've been watching Farhad Asghar's films in backward order. After three films, I've reached "The Beautiful City", his second film, but I think I will stop here, because I think it will be difficult to find his debut, and probably a bit pointless. But of course, knowing myself, I will eventually hunt it down. I've seen four out of his five movies, how can I leave it unfinished now?

"The Beautiful City" doesn't have the polish of Asghar's later films. It has the tone and feel of the usual Iranian festival films, and what really sets Asghar's later films apart, is how well it manages to combine the usual art film mentality with mainstream appeal. But he doesn't have the magic touch yet.

The film is about a young man ready to be hanged for murdering a girl. He was a minor at the time he did the act, but as he has turned 18, he is to be executed soon. His jail-mate takes it upon himself to get the pardon from the victim's family, which is the only way the guilty can stay alive. This is Iran's law, and while Iran's track record of execution always seem to have the world attach to tyranny, it's interesting to me how democratic it actually is. Is what Iran doing not closest to democracy than the rest of the world? Or if not democracy, than the rule of Man over the system. The act of execution is the hands of the victim, not the government and not random strangers. Whether this is right or not I will not comment on, but is it at least not more democratic?

3/5