Thu, Nov 22 / 7 pm
Directed by Mani Haghighi
2018, Iran, 108 min
Persian with English subtitles
A serial killer is beheading Iran’s best filmmakers — and blacklisted director Hasan Kasmai, who has a high opinion of himself, is starting to take umbrage! Why hasn’t he been targeted yet? The latest from writer-director Mani Haghighi (A Dragon Arrives!) is a flamboyant, farcical black comedy satirizing artistic ego, gender relations, government censorship, and social-media culture. Hasan Majuni plays pompous, petulant Hasan, now reduced to directing bug-spray ads. Leila Hatami (star of Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation) is his fave actress and mistress Shiva, who’s about to make a movie with Hasan’s biggest rival. Haghighi’s delirious film opens with the murder of Haghighi himself. The film which debuted at the Berlin festival this year was shot by cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari who also shot A Separation. – Pacific Cinematheque
An ongoing series of Iranian films presented in conjunction with Amir Ganjavie, president of the Phoenix Cultural Centre of Toronto and CineIran – an annual festival of contemporary Iranian cinema in Toronto.
