From Tehran to Brighton Beach

28.12.2024

From Tehran to Brighton Beach

Regional Cinema in 2024

What defined regional cinema in 2024 – from the groundbreaking achievements of Iranian and Georgian directors at Berlin, Cannes, and Venice, to the impactful performances of Armenian actors in Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner “Anora”. Film critic and journalist Diana Martirosyan walks us through the most important cinematic moments of the year.

Text: Diana Martirosyan 

 

 

Looking at our region's cinema, the past year was marked by two major festival triumphs. Mohammad Rasoulof's 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' based on true events, tells the story of the protests surrounding Mahsa Amini's tragic death and follows young women who resist patriarchal traditions through family confrontations. The film competed in Cannes' Main Competition and received the Special Jury Prize. Meanwhile, 38-year-old Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili's second feature film 'April,' which portrays a remote Georgian province and follows the story of a gynecologist performing unwanted pregnancy terminations, won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

Kulumbegashvili's film also competed in the Main Competition alongside high-profile entries like 'Joker: Folie à Deux,' Almodóvar's 'The Room Next Door,' and 'Maria,' a biographical film about opera legend Callas featuring Angelina Jolie. Main Competition films are always under intense attention, and during 'April's' first press screening the audience was full.. However, the hyper-realistic and explicit abortion scenes prompted dozens of viewers (if not more) to walk out during the screening. The film opens with a semi-nude woman on an operating table undergoing a cesarean section. After this shocking prologue, viewers are immersed in the protagonist's melancholic, slow-paced daily life, where her demanding work and complex inner turmoil are embodied in a somber character that could boldly be called an allegory for depression. It portrays villages where women are raped by relatives and forced to stay silent, where the 'lucky ones' are married off at 16 and expected to become pregnant immediately. 

While Kulumbegashvili's film is at times radical, hyper-realistic, and causes almost physical discomfort, Swedish-born Georgian filmmaker Levan Akin, who spent his summers visiting his grandmother, addresses social issues more gently and accessibly in his film 'Crossing.' The film had its world premiere in February at the Berlin International Film Festival, and won Teddy Award and Panorama audience Award, plus received positive reviews from the international press. The film follows Lea, a retired schoolteacher from Batumi, who travels to Turkey in search of her niece Tekla, a transgender woman who moved to Istanbul. Lea promised her dying sister she would bring Tekla home, and the family regrets forcing her out years ago. At its core, Akin's film is about redemption, loneliness, and the reexamination of values.

 

 

While Akin's Istanbul presents bustling streets filled with diverse inhabitants - including transgender people, homeless children searching for food or toys in garbage bins, and dancing Georgians - Mohammad Rasoulof's 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' weaves the documented brutal reality of Tehran's streets with one family's story. At the film's epicenter is Iman, a lawyer, and his family. The father has recently been appointed as an investigator, a promotion that brings stricter duties and higher expectations. Iman's two teenage daughters actively follow the city's protests on social media, and although they don't participate directly, they help a friend injured by police brutality, sheltering her in their home and providing first aid. Iman's wife, Najmeh, though deeply anxious and afraid, assists the injured girl while trying to keep everything hidden from her husband.

 


The film's title refers to a type of fig that grows by spreading around neighboring trees, ultimately strangling them. In Rasoulof's work, this symbolizes Iran's theocratic regime, and this fable-like symbolism reaches its climax in the final act, juxtaposed against the pressures of patriarchal and authoritarian systems.
When the film's selection for Cannes' Main Competition was announced, Rasoulof and the film crew were interrogated by Iranian authorities, who banned them from leaving the country and pressured the director to withdraw the film from the festival program. Days later, the director's lawyer announced that Rasoulof had been sentenced to eight years in prison, along with lashing, fines, and property confiscation. However, with support from the German consulate, Rasoulof illegally fled Iran and received temporary documentation that allowed him to enter France and appear on the Cannes Red Carpet for the film's world premiere.

 


The political persecution of Rasoulof and the film's complex journey from a 'strangling' theocracy to the most glamorous, publicized, and beach-side international film festival made 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' one of the program's most discussed films. Understanding that Germany, France, and Italy, with their influential film festivals, often serve as platforms for political and humanitarian calls, it was predictable that the film would receive one of the main prizes. Just days ago, it was announced that 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' representing Germany in the upcoming Oscar's 'Best International Film' category, has made it to the Academy's shortlist and (if nominated) will compete for the coveted statuette.

Against the backdrop of Iran's sharp and heavy but highly relevant socio-political themes, the presence of Armenian and Russian characters in Sean Baker's 'Anora' appears somewhat escapist. Many critics (mainly Russian dissidents and Ukrainians) largely believe that the film exploits outdated clichés about Russian oligarchs and that having a Russian protagonist and actor in a central role today isn't quite appropriate. Of course, many don't know that Baker's film concept was born years ago in conversations between the director and film actor Karren Karagulian, with the aim of creating an immigrant story against the backdrop of New York's Brighton Beach atmosphere.

Certainly, Baker's films are characterized less by radical socio-political agendas and more by situational humor, where laughter can suddenly give way to bitter drama masked by irony, or even burst into tears. In 'Anora's' case, the tears probably come only in the final scene. The film exists on the border between American and immigrant cinema, and immigrants are everywhere, regardless of or especially because of the realities of war.

Although actor Karren Karagulian, who plays Toros, an Armenian managing a Russian oligarch's son in the film, has been actively collaborating with Baker and appearing in his films since the director's 2000 debut (*Four Letter Words), 'Anora' remains distinctly American - an American production telling an American story, where post-Soviet characters bring their national nuances and color to the narrative.

 

 


The Armenian elements are evident in the brief dialogues between Toros (Karagulian) and Garnik (Vache Tovmasyan), which reflect typical Eastern European mentality, and in the comically extravagant Armenian christening scene. This scene, presumably, is far more humorous to Armenians than to, say, French, Swedish or Dutch viewers, as demonstrated by the notably different reactions of local and international audiences during screenings in Cannes and Yerevan.

While 'Anora,' featuring Armenian actors in supporting roles, won the Palme d'Or, Armenian film production managed to secure a spot in only one of the three major festivals: at the Venice International Film Festival's Venice Classics program, which includes a section dedicated to films about filmmakers and cinema. In September, it screened Zara Jan's documentary 'I Will Take Revenge on the World Through Love,' featuring filmmakers Atom Egoyan, Chulpan Khamatova, Emir Kusturica, Tarsem Singh, and others reflecting on Sergei Parajanov and his legacy.

Looking beyond the jubilee year of Charles Aznavour and Parajanov, which was filled with various events, retrospective screenings, homage evenings and ceremonies, and even films dedicated to these renowned artists, it will be interesting to see what themes Armenian filmmakers will explore in the coming year, and whether they will succeed, like their Georgian and Iranian counterparts, in making local issues and Armenian perspectives more resonant and recognizable on the global stage.

 

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