Tag: Persian

REVIEW: Holy Spider [2022]

Jared Mobarak

Keep your eyes open. Saeed Hanaei’s (Mehdi Bajestani) compulsion has grown to uncontrollable levels. So, it’s only a matter of time before he’s caught—if Mashhad’s police want to catch him. That’s the question Tehran journalist Rahimi (Zar Amir-Ebrahimi) asks upon arriving at the holy city. Nine women (all prostitutes) had already been strangled to death and dumped in and around the same area with no leads or suspects to be found. Either the department is inept, the so-called “Spider Killer” is a genius, or the crimes aren’t something the public…

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SLAM22 REVIEW: کشتن خواجه [Killing the Eunuch Khan] [2023]

Jared Mobarak

Where is the escape? It would be a mistake to take the synopsis for Abed Abest‘s Killing the Eunuch Khan at face value because this is not a film about a serial killer in the generic sense of the word. Khan (Ebrahim Azizi) isn’t some cult leader a la Charles Manson sending his disciples out into the world to murder people in his name. He’s not a monster in the vein of Jigsaw either, entrapping victims to do his dirty work in the hope that doing so will earn them…

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REVIEW: قهرمان‎ [Ghahreman] [A Hero] [2021]

Jared Mobarak

The unexpected visitor. Rahim (Amir Jadidi) is embarking on his latest two-day leave from prison in the hopes that it will prove long enough to earn his freedom. He’s serving time for his inability to pay a debt of 150,000 toman and his creditor (Mohsen Tanabandeh‘s Bahram) has been the opposite of helpful as far as facilitating a road back. The reasons are complicated by the fact Bahram isn’t some banker or loan shark. He’s ex-family who did his sister-in-law a favor by compromising his own savings to protect her…

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REVIEW: فروشنده [Forushande] [The Salesman] [2016]

Jared Mobarak

“For once it looks like we’re in luck” There’s this notion that tragedy won’t happen to us. It’s for people who don’t live their lives correctly—some karmic retribution paying for mistakes made along the way. We like to believe we’re different whether such a belief is deserved or not. So when something does occur, only a seething anger results. Anger at your hard work to stay moral and good proving to be for naught; anger about thoughts of revenge seeming impossible considering acting upon them would simply lower you onto…

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