Lovely Trash | Ashghal-haye Doost Dashtani (2019)
Directed by: Mohsen Amiryoussefi
Date of birth: 23 February 1972, Abadan, Iran
Writing credits:
Mohsen Amiryoussefi
Music:
Afshin Azizi
Country: Iran
Language: Farsi
Color: Color
Runtime: 96 minutes
Released: 2019
Genre:
Drama
Lovely Trash | Ashghal-haye Doost
Dashtani (2019) By Shirin Jahed,
Cinema Without Borders, on 03/08/2019 Film Reviews
Following protests to
the presidential election in 2009, an elderly woman has one night to clear her
house of any politically troublesome belongings of her family.
To help
her out; her deceased husband, her executed brother and two martyred and
immigrated sons are back to life in their picture frames.
The entire story takes
place in less than a day, and in one location, in a middle-aged woman’s house,
where she has been living there alone. All her attachments to life are 4 picture
frames of the men of her life. One from her husband, a man who once supported
Mossadegh (the democratic prime minister of Iran in 1950s that his government
was overturned by a CIA coup in 1953), but after many years he goes to Hajj
while drinking alcohol privately (forbidden for Moslems).
Also there are
two picture frames of her sons, one from his son that had been fighting on the
Iraq war front (he had been a religious extremist) and had been martyred, and
the other one from his other son that had studied and graduated outside Iran and
is planning to go back to Iran. He opposes the ruling regime as an intellectual.
The fourth picture frame belongs to her brother, a man with communist tendencies
that has been executed.
This can be a diverse face of all Iranian men,
and a woman who pays the price of her men’s wishes! This woman is neither a hero
nor a brave person… actually because of her memories from different times of her
life that security forces had invaded her house, she has turned to be very
conservative person.
In the 2009 people’s uprising, some protesters
shelter at her home and stay for a while and then leave, but the woman scared of
possible attack of security forces to her house, gathers anything that to her is
a suspicious document and puts them all in a trash bag. (That’s why the title of
the film is Lovely Junks)
The film is interesting in terms of form and content, but this game of
pretending to address the societies problems to release the existing pressure
and redeem people unhappiness is not working anymore. These tricks are not
functioning as they are known by everyone and they are just turned to be a
cliche.
Even the form of the film is interesting, but it’s very boring.
(The pictures come to life and transform into the characters.) The whole movie
happens in just one location and is full of unnecessary shots … Of course
judging the movies that had been band by censorship is not easy as many scenes
from the film could have been eliminated, for example, I did not understand the
reason for the presence of Negar Javaherian, and so on.
Saber Abar and Shahab
Hosseini performances are excellent like in most of their other
films. But picking Abdi
to play the father did not make sense to me. Hedyeh
Tehrani had a short but impressive part. Shirin Yazdanbakhsh’s performance was fine but did
not come close to her acting in Life + 1 Day. Habib Rezai’s performance wasn’t
that great.
Cinematography and lighting were at the service of telling the story. The
sound recording of Mahmoud Samaqbashi like his other work as a
sound engineer was great. Contrary to the word of mouth praising this film, it
did not meet my expectations. But I had to see it.
And I was leaving the theater I had this question in my mind: “Can it be true
that all the men in a women’s life could just live in picture
frames.”
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