Rana Azadvar Movies
A handful of men prove their masculine determination brings them nothing but trouble in this playful satiric comedy from Iran. Four longtime friends, all well into middle age, are returning to Tehran from a weekend skiing trip when they discover a large rock is stuck in the middle of a road winding around a mountain. The tall stone shaft (which appears just a bit phallic) is preventing them from going forward, so they try to push it over, with no success. They try to persuade an elderly man to help them move the rock with the help of his donkey, but the donkey's owner is wary, and after he's paid off, the plan still fails to move the stone. A pair of women happen by, one of whom is married to one of the skiers; while she tries to patiently stay out of the argument, her best friend is soon quarrelling with the guys about moving the rock, and as the day progresses and traffic begins to back up, she has more than a few other voices backing her up. Directed by Mani Haghighi, Karegaran Mashghoul-e Karand (aka Men At Work) was based on a story idea by the legendary Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Atila Pesyani, Mahmoud Kalari, (more)
- 2004
A crook gets a crash course in offering moral guidance in this Iranian comedy. Reza (Parviz Parastui) is a thief known to his underworld cronies as "The Lizard" thanks to his gift for scaling walls and climbing buildings. However, Reza's talent doesn't prevent him from being periodically caught by police; he's sent to a prison where the warden, who regards Reza as morally corrupt, takes it upon himself to torture him into a more spiritually pure state. Reza soon strikes up a friendship with a mullah (an Islamic priest) who offers a more benevolent and humanistic spiritual viewpoint. But, while Reza admires the mullah, that doesn't stop him from taking the holy man's clothes as a disguise for an escape attempt. Reza's plan works, but circumstances dictate that he must continue to pose as a mullah when the over-enthusiastic congregation at a mosque mistake him for their new leader, and he finds himself forced to offer spiritual advice based on his gut feelings rather than any extensive Islamic teachings. A major box-office success in Iran that broke box-office records, Marmoulak (aka The Lizard) also won the audience award at Tehran's Fajr Film Festival. Though popular, the film was increasingly controversial in its home country and was banned in some areas; pressure from clerics, the judiciary, and the Culture Ministry eventually led the filmmakers to withdraw it from theaters in May of 2004 (it had premiered in April and was expected to run until at least July). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Parviz Parastoei, Rana Azadvar, (more)
