Who knew, before the 76e edition of the Locarno International Film Festival, which just ended on Saturday August 12, Iranian filmmaker Ali Ahmadzadeh, whose film Critical Zone (Mantagheye Bohrani) received the Golden Leopard? Aged 37, the director and screenwriter shot his feature film in hiding, with non-professional actors, and was unable to leave Iranian territory to go to Switzerland. It was its producer, Sina Ataeian Dena, in a checkered jacket and bow tie, who gravely recovered the fawn statuette during the ceremony – the jury was chaired by French actor Lambert Wilson and the Golden Leopard was awarded unanimously.
Unveiled in world premiere on August 10, Critical Zone, an Iranian and German production, is one of the strong discoveries of this edition: this anticipation film features Amir, a thirty-year-old man with the false air of a hipster (bearded, jeans), who sells drugs and distributes his doses at night, driving his car, on the outskirts of Tehran.
In a way, the driver-dealer soothes souls, visits a depressed young man, or people at the end of their lives for whom he has prepared somewhat special cakes – the viewer will have seen Amir before at his home, in the stoves, his dog never missing a beat, and the silent device is not lacking in humour. This captivating story is built on the expressway, over the appointments announced by a GPS, a sort of accomplice who also warns Amir in the event of “threats”.
The power of the film comes from this character of a driver-caregiver engaged in illicit activities, connected to a whole network of people (of zombies) hidden in the interstices of the city – like a group of resistance fighters, including a flight attendant who takes a seat on board and will let out a disturbing cry, head out of the window and hair down.
Amir must blend into Tehran and not be spotted – like a double of the director who had to embark the camera in the car, according to a method already well tested by the multi-award-winning filmmaker Jafar Panahi – the director of Taxi Tehran (2015), Golden Bear in Berlin –, was sentenced in 2010 for “propaganda against the regime”, to a sentence (among other things) of banning filming for twenty years. Beyond the Iranian context, Critical Zone belongs to this category of bizarre and cracked films in front of which one jubilates.
In Locarno, interpretation awards are no longer gendered
The special jury prize was awarded to the totally punk montage film by Romanian Radu Jude, Don’t Expect Too Much From the End of the World (Don’t expect too much from the end of the worldin theaters September 27), which ignited the public.
You have 61.51% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.