Tehran Taboo, 2017.
Written and Directed by Ali Soozandah.
Featuring the voice talents of Elmira Rafizadeh, Bilal Yasar, Arash Marandi, Zahra Amir Ebrahimi, Alireza Bayram, Sasan Behroozian, Farhad Abadinejad, Siir Eloglu, Hasan Ali Mete, Roxana Rahnama, Morteza Tavakoli, and Thomas Nash.
SYNOPSIS:
In their desperate search for freedom and happiness, four young people from Tehran, Iran are forced to break the taboos of a restrictive, islamic society.
At first glance, animation appears to be an unorthodox route to exploring sexuality, hypocrisy, female oppression, and unsavory living conditions in Iran, but it’s actually a brilliant and bold move for multiple reasons. First and most importantly, Tehran Taboo is the filmmaking debut from writer and director Ali Soozandah, an Iranian turned German citizen adopting rotoscope animation (more on this stunning craftsmanship later) to circumvent the inability to depict an authentic environment; the country has very strict rules on what is allowed to be filmed there, so it’s essentially a double middle-finger to unfair censorship. That right there is already enough to check out a movie, but thankfully, this Iranian based, technically German-Austrian production, portrait of Tehran citizens fighting political and gender systems holds nothing back making for a scorching lambast on so many aspects wrong within the country, even though much of what is here is, by now, common knowledge unless somehow you avoid any and all foreign current events.
With that said, a subplot involving one woman hounding the partying, musically ambitious DJ that slips her drugs and courts her into consensual sexual intercourse inside the club’s bathroom to frantically search for a doctor that can stitch up her private area to make her pure again for her unsuspecting husband is certainly enlightening in a very disturbing way regarding how forbidden a woman is allowed to be sexually. It’s also a rare occasion where there’s moderate sympathy for an adulterer; women are forced to lead such prudish lives intimately that it’s understanding how a night out of freedom can go from bad to worse. Babak also shows his moral conscious by doing everything he can to make the situation right.
Decent men are few and far between in Tehran Taboo, as the feature opens up with an uncomfortable sequence displaying a prostitute mother giving a blowjob to a cab driver while her adolescent son sits in the backseat. That sounds like a blunt, possibly over the top exaggerated sequence to open up on, and Tehran Taboo does contain many additional shocking moments, but to the credit of the script and direction, it all feels confined to reality. Helping this are more subtle moments, such as a grandfather casually watching pornography and objectifying models around children. Following this a bit later in the film is a scene where children try to peek in and discreetly perve on women in a bathhouse, which is assuredly creepy but admittedly hard to fault the children for considering their inappropriate upbringing.
Tehran Taboo is also superbly admitted in a way that makes all of the intertwining character arcs feel organic and not so much forced into collision. As a result, characters are allowed balanced screen time, never giving the impression that one story is more important than the other. It’s clear that Pari is the closest thing to a central character, trying to raise her son while trying to satisfy a crooked judge only interested in assisting with legal matters and giving her a place to live all in exchange for sexual favors, but the interactions quickly shift things into an equal playing field. Wisely, the film also knows which characters would be pointless and superfluous to focus on any longer than necessary.
All of these fantastic qualities are heightened by the aforementioned rotoscope animation style. Basically, live performances are traced over and then animated in order to demonstrate greater detail in facial expressions and movements in the joints. Truthfully, it was the smartest created decision the talented group of filmmakers could have made, as such complex adult-oriented material requires lifelike animations to ensure it feels real. Otherwise, it could have been easy to become disconnected from all the taboo transpiring on-screen. Even if you didn’t read this or any review and just watched the movie on a whim, the production of the animation is still rich and anyone should be able to tell it’s a combination of real people and computers.
Again, Tehran Taboo isn’t a groundbreaking piece of entertainment blowing the lid off of how corrupt Iran is; we already know that and much of the content here isn’t going to surprise anyone. However, it is approached from a wholly unconventional way and is solidly written and directed with believable voiceover performances. It should also be applauded that the film offers no happy ending; things are just as bleak at the end as they began, driving home the point that citizens, absolutely women, have every right in the world for wanting to seek refuge in more hospitable, progressive, developed, countries. Specifically speaking, females have virtually no rights and freedom, and they deserve a whole lot more. I realize I’m preaching to the choir, but that doesn’t make any of the depressing lives in Tehran Taboo any less outrageous to watch unfold.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated Patreon, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
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