NR | 1h 17m | Drama | 2024
Arguing with a bureaucrat is usually a fool’s errand. However, arguing with a bureaucrat vested with a small degree of power by a toxic ideology can be a Kafkaesque undertaking. Yet that is what many average Iranians face on a regular basis. Director-screenwriters Alireza Khatami and Ali Asgari focus on nine such Iranians as they try to negotiate with minor, unsympathetic authority figures in “Terrestrial Verses.”
Dark Humor
Wisely, Mr. Khatami and Mr. Asgari start with that somewhat humorous encounter (albeit, rather darkly so), because later sequences have such drastic consequences. In fact, it is easy to see the influence of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement protesting the Islamist regime’s misogyny in several such segments. For instance, the audience watches helplessly as the spirit of Selena (Arghavan Shabani) is crushed by the restrictive, all-encompassing Islamic garb that a bossy saleslady forces her mother to buy for an upcoming elementary school ceremony.
Similarly, teenager Aram (Sarvin Zabetian) faces expulsion and disgrace when her high school principal accuses her of an improper relationship with a boy. However, Aram’s resourcefulness supplies one of the film’s rare moments of hope. On the other hand, ride-share driver Sadaf (Sadaf Asgari) has little recourse when the Islamist government threatens to revoke her driver’s license because a traffic camera allegedly caught her driving without the mandated headscarf.
It is excruciatingly uncomfortable to watch the humiliations inflicted on Farbod. Both Faezeh (Faezeh Rad) and Siamak (Majid Salehi) endure interviewers’ comparably mean-spirited power games during dubious job interviews. While Siamak faces a potential sexual abuser, Faezeh must fumblingly recite Quran verses for an ultra-fundamentalist manager, who likely has no intention of hiring him.
Each segment is heartbreaking in its own way, but probably none more so than that featuring Mehri (Gohar Kheirandish), an elderly woman desperately hoping to reclaim her beloved little dog, which was confiscated during the latest police sweep targeting “un-Islamic” pets. Any dog lover will find her experience deeply distressing.
Yet the segment that will hit closest to most movie lovers’ hearts is the encounter between filmmaker Ali (Farzin Mohades) and the state censor, who just halted his latest production. It definitely recalls the recent ordeals of censored filmmakers, like Jafar Panahi. Once again, there are grimly comical elements, such as Ali ripping the many contested pages out of his incredible shrinking screenplay. It makes a vivid visual point regarding the lack of free expression in contemporary Iran.
Simple, Yet Heartbreaking
The deceptively simple “Terrestrial Verses” is about as minimalist as cinema gets outside the realm of avant-garde filmmaking. Yet the drama is so engrossing that viewers might find themselves almost suffocating from its visceral intensity. The filmmakers’ rigid gaze forces the audience to witness, up close and personal, the grim farces that these average Iranians endure.The nine featured cast members’ performances are uniformly excellent. Mr. Ark is particularly successful at bringing out the unlikely humor in the newborn father’s ridiculous dilemma. The fear and humiliation that Ms. Rad and Mr. Soleimani express while facing their predatory interlocutors are genuinely chilling. Yet Ms. Kheirandish may be the most quietly devastating, as the bereft dog-loving senior citizen.
Frankly, it is difficult to find a film with nine performances that are equally powerful and distinctive. Each storyline clearly illustrates how an anti-individualist ideology empowered by bureaucratic authority inevitably leads to cruelty.
Every constituent scenario reflects Iranian realities, but the film itself is not exactly a work of cinematic realism. In fact, the final scene, featuring veteran Persian actor Ardeshir Kazemi as a silent observer, seems to suggest that a reckoning might soon be at hand.
Even though their industry is plagued by official film censors, like the one Ali argues with, Iranian filmmakers are often amazingly subversive—from the regime’s perspective. “Terrestrial Verses” is an excellent example. It is an exhausting viewing experience, but it’s also a deeply moving and humanistic film. Very highly recommended.
