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Under the Smokey Roof, review: Choked souls and misguided goals

A classic Iranian family drama with a four players who let life dictate to them, rather than take the bull by the horns, provides an excellent backdrop for the intersections and conflagrations to launch a rivetting back and forth exercise of a swinging emotional see-saw. Not this time. Shows how easily a tale full of promise can turn into a pointless enactment of the plot that moves from point A to point B. Even that would not have been so bad. Problem is, A is not very far from B.

Shirin (Merila Zare’i – Best Actress, Fajr Film Festival), is a woman facing problems in her marriage and with her child. Her husband has another kept woman, while her child has fallen into bad company. He is also in love, but the love is doomed because he is neither studying not working. His father’s factory is facing a sales crunch and is on the verge of shut down. She’s desperately trying for a way to connect with her son and her husband. Several incidents lead to worsening of relations between the three, so they try psychiatric counselling.

Written and directed by Pouran Derakhshandeh (Hiss Dokhtarha Faryad Nemizanand, A Candle in the Wind), the movie trundles along, occasionally punctuated with imaginative shots and framing. All the actors go about their duties faithfully, even though there is a foreboding of doom and helplessness. Out of the blue, Derakhshandeh pulls out an invalid child on a wheel-chair, and you know she’s got what it takes. There is attention to detail too, with little props taking the story forward. Problem is, it crawls. Moreover, one could see the land-deal rip-off coming a mile away.

Farhad Aslani as the husband doesn’t have a likable character to portray, and he manages to remain the ‘here and now’ person, who wants to be left alone to deal with own crises. In spite of his neglect of his wife and son and having a kept woman, he is painted a shade of dark grey, not black. It is abundantly clear that most of the characters in the film are not clear about what to expect from life and family. Then there are the others who either make compromises or cling on to straws in the wind. Choked souls and misguided goals.

I can recall many Iranian films that have kept me better engaged for 107 minutes.

Rating: **