3/19/2024 0 Comments Iran proud baradaran leila![]() Roustaee, who wrote the script, takes great pains to show how corruption has seeped into every level of Iranian life, from the scheming factory owners at the top to guys way down at the bottom like Parviz, who works as a bathroom attendant at a shopping mall and cons his customers into paying double to use the toilets. Everyone wants to get ahead, but doing so inevitably means stepping over someone else, whether it’s your brother, sister, father or neighbor, in a crooked world where it’s impossible to make it big - or just make it all - without resorting to some form of deception. This, and the fact that the only person earning a real living in the household is Leila, is what propels a plot where the needs of the individual and the family unit are constantly colliding. And then there’s the father, Esmail (Saeed Poursamimi), who wants nothing more than a little respect from both his children and extended clan, especially after an older patriarch passes away, leaving Esmail as a prospective candidate to take his place. The other three brothers run the gamut from the conniving yet vulnerable Manouchehr (Maadi) to the bodybuilding cab driver Farhad (Mohammad Ali Mohammadi) to the overweight janitor and family man, Parviz (Farhad Aslani). There’s the moral anchor, Alireza (Navid Mohammadzadeh), who’s laid off from his blue-collar job at the start of the film, in a breathtaking sequence where scores of workers flee as riot police storm their factory, which we learn was shut down after the boss embezzled away all the earnings. ![]() Leila’s Brothers centers around the titular sister, played by Taraneh Alidoosti (who broke out in Farhadi’s About Elly), and her quartet of brothers, each with his own shape, size and distinct personality type. ![]() His movies are overwhelming, hard-hitting kitchen-sink dramas in which he has no problem tossing in the kitchen sink as much as possible, and the wonder is how he manages to pull it off so well. The films of fellow Iranian Asghar Farhadi come to mind here - both directors work frequently with Payman Maadi, one of their country’s finest actors - although where Farhadi tends to be more searching and suggestive, Roustaee puts it all out there in extremely bold ways, including scenes featuring hundreds of extras that have the monumental scope of a Cecil B. Filled with powerhouse turns by an ensemble cast, many of whom also starred in Just 6.5, Leila’s Brothers reveals the 32-year-old Roustaee to be a masterly, if aggressively unwieldy, filmmaker whose voice is clearly one to be reckoned with. Like a massive 19 th century novel by Zola or Dickens condensed into a three-hour story, the movie follows five siblings struggling to stay afloat in a dog-eat-dog Iran stifled by fraud, class struggle, clan rivalries and an economy that’s forever teetering on the brink of disaster. Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Competition)Ĭast: Taraneh Alidoosti, Navid Mohammadzadeh, Payman Maadi, Saeed Poursamimi, Mohammad Alimohammadi, Farhad Aslani Roustaee’s third feature, the equally epic if more intimate working-class family saga Leila’s Brothers, will hopefully give one of cinema’s most promising new talents more of a spotlight after its premiere in competition in Cannes. ![]() Just 6.5 was never released in the U.S., which is as criminal as the milieu it so engrossingly depicted. Set in a modern-day Tehran teeming with corruption, crackheads and cops fighting to keep the city from spinning out of control, it was the kind of sprawling, action-packed and morally complex thriller that they simply don’t make in Hollywood anymore - or if they do make it, it’s on television and it’s called The Wire. One of the best crime movies, and perhaps one of the best movies period, to come out in recent years was Iranian writer-director Saeed Roustaee’s epic police drama, Just 6.5.
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