In Persian. 151 minute running time, but it’s four separate stories and only the first one is any good, so you should just watch that one and quit while you’re ahead. This was a recent reco from my buddy John Farr.

It’s a political movie from Iran, criticizing the brutality and inhumanity of the regime currently in power there, a place where prisoners (both political and otherwise) are routinely executed by the State … the first story is the only good one and you can skip the others, since they are lame, or heavy-handed, or weakly acted… sort of like made-for-TV stuff, just second-rate. But the first story is good.

SPOILERS. There’s a middle-aged pudgy guy who’s a real sweetheart, rescuing stuck kitties, being patient and tolerant with his annoying wife and bratty child, being patient and kind with his aged mother-in-law (or mother?). He’s a really meek and mild guy living a good, decent, middle-class life in Iran. But there is a sense all along that something isn’t right, and in the end you discover he’s a hangman. It’s well done.

It was like the filmmaker had one good story to tell but couldn’t sell a 45 minute movie, so he had to pad it out to 2 and half hours, which just ruined it. Anyway, I don’t recommend the movie, and if you do see it, you can stop after the first story, which is called “There Is No Evil.”

Deborah Young agrees: “… the four tales suffer from being narratively uneven, making the film’s two-and-a-half-hour running time seem long indeed … yet the first untitled episode about a man who works at night is a perfectly balanced and crafted little jewel that stands out in Rasoulof’s filmography.”