"Mamirow"; Nakedness Before Death

"Mamirow" (meaning immortal in the local language) is the second film by Hadi Mohaghegh, which won the Best Film Award at the Busan Festival - the largest festival in Asia - as well as the International Critics' Award (FIPRESCI). As judges of the International Critics' Association at the Busan Festival, we unanimously agreed, and most of us had no disagreement about the best film; other judges also stated that they reached a conclusion about this film as their first choice within a minute. "Mamirow" is an astonishing experience from a young filmmaker who is unafraid to be bold in new contexts and settings; a deeply heartfelt effort that inevitably resonates with the audience. Mohaghegh faces a significant challenge from the beginning: eliminating conventional storytelling and completely relying on visuals, to the extent that all the dialogues in the film constitute only about five minutes of the film. Instead, his camera observes a harsh and oppressive situation that shares the audience in a human agony. The suffering of the main character - whose inner pain we gradually become familiar with - appears to be a seemingly masochistic journey that finds meaning in the struggle against nature and fate. The presence of dry and oppressive nature in the frames is one of the motifs of the images where all details take shape in the context of it - and in contrast or interaction with it. The main character (played remarkably by Yadollah Shadmani) is a man about whom we do not know much. For a long time, we only see him attempting to commit suicide, trying various methods, and failing each time, to the point where even a bitter humor emerges (including a scene where he begs a horse to jump off a cliff). The film's reluctance to provide information becomes its strength: the audience increasingly accompanies this character moment by moment and wishes to know more about him. Only in the middle of the film do we become acquainted with his guilt - and the reason for it - and pre-designed details - like a flipped minibus on a difficult road - find meaning within the film's linear yet carefully progressing narrative. The film, of course, is not for every type of viewer and quickly directs the Hollywood-addicted audience out of the theater; however, the serious viewer faces an engaging and irreversible challenge: the film's request to share in the suffering of humanity. It is a strange and shocking request (which, for instance, reminds one of Haneke's "Amour"), but at the same time, in its subtle and thought-provoking layers, it is a praise of life with all its hardships. A light of hope can be found in the next generation; in a teenager who, with love - and at the same time fulfilling the duty of caring for his grandfather in unbearable conditions - pushes fate one step back and can - in the final shot; a bitter yet hopeful image - seek another world that perhaps - just perhaps - carries less pain and suffering. The film narrates the journey of a man becoming naked - and pure and clean - before death. Religious thoughts can be sought through the filmmaker's thoughts; however, his beliefs and convictions are spread in subtle layers that precisely match the film's atmosphere and characters. In a sense, "Mamirow" is a very personal film that shares the filmmaker's inner world - from a place near where the story takes place - in a way that combines the conscious and the unconscious with the audience. In fact, the filmmaker opens the way for the unconscious that he himself does not know how it has formed; the result of this combination of instinctive and unknown emotions, with precision and boldness in imagery, ultimately creates a delightful outcome: a film about death, while also about life. The film begins with the struggle for death, and step by step, this desire for death finds meaning in this character's world until ultimately determining his fate (destiny?). This journey is also reflected in his clothing: this man initially wears a complete outfit (with a healthy body) and gradually becomes naked before death and deteriorates until in the scenes close to the end - completely naked with a shaved head - he approaches death; where the camera, as an impartial observer, witnesses a ceremony in which one of the village elders reminds him of all the traditional collective beliefs about religion (by counting the names of the Shia Imams one by one) and perhaps prepares him for death, while we know nothing about the main character's beliefs and the film offers no guarantee of his salvation, whereas earlier we had seen a degree of joy on his face with the presence of a woman in the house - a symbol of life.