Rhino Season, 2012.
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi.
Starring Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Yilmaz Erdogan, Belçim Bilgin, Caner Cindoruk, Arash Labaf and Ali Pourtash.
SYNOPSIS:
After spending 30 years in an Iranian prison, a poet searches for his wife.
Inspired by a friend who was incarcerated during the Islamic Revolution in Iran, filmmaker Bahman Gobadi tells a tale of a poet who seeks out his family after being in prison for 30 years; believing him to be dead they have moved from Iran to Istanbul. Through a series of flashbacks we learn that the former political prisoner was the victim of a jealous chauffer who had sought out and was respited by the woman who became his wife.
The imagery is stark and stylized while the colours are bleached creating a washed look filled with brown and blues. There is hardly any dialogue so it is left mainly to the pictures to tell the story and in the case of the actors they have to convey their emotions through their gestures, facial expressions and eyes; even with the limitations placed upon him, the performance of Behromz Vossough is haunting.
Like the subject matter, the movie shows human nature at its worse; however, not all is lost as there are psychological consequences for those who commit the treacherous acts. Redemption is sought out by literally burning the words of the wronged onto the skin of the offender. The final act is to make the ultimate self-sacrifice unknown to the woman who is in the centre of the maelstrom.
Maybe partly due to my brain suffering from an overload from watching so many films during the course of the Toronto International Film Festival, I found myself losing track of what was happening on the big screen. What did leave a lasting impression were the dream-induced visuals which are both beautiful and disturbing.
Trevor Hogg
Originally published September 13, 2012. Updated April 14, 2018.
