| Iran, 2020 | Slice of Life/Thriller/Romance/Drama | Author | Trailer |
I have alredy mentioned several times my love and fascination towards any cultural product from the Iranosphere. Especially, the movies from the newest wave of Iranian cinema offer a very fresh and dynamic take on a culture otherwise sadly known by the traditional slowness and denseness of its films (as you may remember by my corner about Sun Children or A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night). There is no Evil is no exception to this case, and the particular circumstances of its concoction make this movie interesting even before the watch.
This movie is a particular case of an episodic work. It’s composed by four parts, each one apparently independent from the rest, but that discuss the same hot topic and slightly reference details present in the plots of the rest. This unfrequent premise is justified. The director, Mohammad Rasoulof, is prosecuted by Iran’s regime due to his activism and showing the omnipresent dubiousity that governs their system in his movies. In order to shoot There is no Evil, he presented four different scripts (each one for each episode) in different moments, under different identities, so the government could give him permission to shoot without knowing it was him. He even disguised himself at the shootings. This was the only way he could manage to shoot a movie there. Sick.
After the rehearsal of There is no Evil, he got arrested, and ever since then, he attended all acts where the movie was presented via virtual conference from prison, as seen below.
There is no Evil is a pure leviathan of a movie. It’s a constant proof of god-tier cinematographic skill, a steel hard will and discipline. Each one of the “episodes” -even with their underlying common leitmotif– belongs to a totally different genre (slice of life the first, thriller the second, romance the third and drama the fourth), and is powerfully narrated in particular ways that direct the audience’s perception exactly where the director wants our minds to go. More than often, that leads to sudden and unexpected impacts that maximize the effect of the exposed topic on us, in the intended ways. It’s millimetrically planned and accurate.
This film was conceived with a target: to show the world a particular issue in Iran, and each episode treats a different aspect of it in such unique, unexpected and powerful ways, at their own pace each, that you can’t but to clap at the movie at the end. Even more, if you consider the skill of the director and his team on successfully performing such a wide exercise on genres, concepts, pacings and writings, all in the same product, and still managing to tie them all correctly, with their own impact each.
If you read some critics (I suggest you to NOT do it because that would reveal you the discussed topic in There is no Evil, and the movie would lose the impact it may cause on you if you go blindly), most people argue only the first “episode” is excellent, while the rest are lackluster. I swear to you, these people are confusing impact with skill. It’s true that the first “episode” (the slice of life one) is conceived to be the one with the most impact, due to the featuring unexpectedness I previously mentioned, but that does not mean the rest are worse. Remember, the pacing and treatment for each segment are different, and they are not inferior only to have different writing. So, we find the second episode (thriller) resembling a theater play at times, the third one subverting the romance genre with a psychological horror twist, and the fourth one misleading the audience, hinting to a very horrific truth below, only to end with an unexpected relief. The fact that a creative and directing team are able to achieve this kind of unity in disparity, with the movie quality NEVER decreasing and maintaining itself fresh from the beginning to the end, is only a hint of perfectly dominating their art and field.
I will never stop recommending There is no Evil as a superb example on how to shoot contemporary cinema and how to conceive a modern classic. Few times before I exited the screening room with the pleasuring sensation to just have witnessed something. I can only remember two times right now. And there can’t be two without three.
I thank any possible deity for having been alive now, and in my very personal life circumstances, just because I have had the chance to watch There is no evil in the cinema room.