Gesher by Vahid Vakilifar

Iran is at the forefront of the filmmaking industry when compared with its neighbours, with a series of productions frequently finding new audiences through the international festival circuit. This trend, which began in earnest during the mid-nineties with the explosion of Iranian Kurdish cinema, seems to be far from over.

One of the most recent and challenging examples coming out of Iran is Vahid Vakilifar’s controversial debut film Gesher, currently in competition in the New Horizons section at the ADFF.

Shot in a documentary style lost somewhere between fiction and reality, this is a portrait of the everyday lives of three immigrant workers in Iran. The film seems to take shape as a collection of snapshots, as if they were postcards from a world vacant of any shred of hope: a recurring theme throughout the movie.

Immediately, one particular thing that stands out in Gesher is the unnervingly powerful sense of quiet desperation permeating the characters’ expressions. One character, a toilet cleaner, is particularly brilliant at communicating this, moving at a zombie-like mechanical pace as he completes his chores. The camera alone appears to capture this sense of hopelessness as dialogues are kept to a minimum.

The photography by M. Reza Jahan Panah is mind-blowing to say the least, using static wide shots that in some way reflect the emptiness of the characters and their lack of future.

The film is not without its faults, particularly in terms of pace and timing, dragging unnecessarily at points. On the other hand this lack of pace seems to be compensated by the rhythmic mechanical sounds in the background which, accidently or not, provide a fitting soundtrack to the story.

After San Sebastian, Rio de Janeiro and Pusan, Gesher seems to be continuing its path to success with a fourth presence at a major festival. And deservedly so, as this is probably one of the most interesting revelations of the year.

By Fernando Vasquez