A People in the Shadows

Just as the rest of Iran, the residents of Tehran live in the shadows of their country's recent past. The three narrowly related segments of Bani Khoshnoudi's show how present and past are intertwined. shows the deep scars that the Islamic Revolution and the war with Iraq have left. concentrates on the young generation, which is getting a crash course in new conflicts. And reveals the ambivalent attitude toward the West, with embracement of consumer culture on the one hand (jeans!) and refusal of the ideology connected to it on the other. Director Bani Khoshnoudi employs a direct cinema method. She films the inhabitants of her city in their own environment: the storekeeper and his regular customer going over the past once again; an underground concert where political criticism can be expressed; a young couple discussing the man's fast approaching military service. They don't address the camera, but rather one another. A recurring image in the film is that of the road workers who toil with cement and lug heavy stone slabs. Little by little, we dive increasingly deeper into this teeming city.