In his second theatrical movie, multi-hyphenate Mehran Modiri, one in all Iran’s most beloved TV satirists, turns his hand to the thriller style with blended outcomes. He writes, directs and performs within the intense however more and more contrived social points film “6 A.M.,” wherein a small incident escalates into an enormous tragedy. Though the indie characteristic principally appears and performs like a middling TV drama, it nonetheless paints a surprisingly important image of the nation by exhibiting how instantly and fully the state can intrude with the behind-closed-doors lives of strange residents.
Philosophy pupil Sara (Samira Hassanpour) is nervously making ready to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Toronto, the place she’s going to dwell for the following three years whereas she pursues her doctorate. As she eats what she jokingly refers to because the “Final Supper” together with her college professor mother and father and brother Siavash (Mehrdad Sedighian), she’s interrupted by a name from her shut good friend Fariba (Mona Farjad) who insists that Sara cease by a remaining gathering of her friends, and gained’t let her say no. Sara offers in, marking the primary of quite a few unhealthy choices that can hang-out her over the course of the night.
The gathering hosted by Fariba and Peyman (Mansour Nasiri) in a spacious, Western-style residence boasting an odd selection of artwork, proves bigger than anticipated, with the female and male mates consuming pizza and consuming unlawful alcohol whereas discussing some social issues, together with excessive rents. Though Sara actually must go to the airport, Fariba has deliberate a number of music performances and she or he gained’t let Sara out the door earlier than they happen.
On the 35-minute mark, the doorbell rings, however as an alternative of extra pleasant faces come to bid Sara goodbye, it’s the police, performing on a citizen report a couple of disturbance. By now, it’s already contact and go for Sara to make her flight. With the probability that the officers will drive these on the get together to go to the police station, her mates assist her to cover in an air duct. The remaining 80 minutes characteristic surprises finest found within the second, throughout which the stress stays excessive whereas the motion turns into progressively far-fetched.
Modiri, who additionally seems as a high-ranking safety companies hostage negotiator within the movie’s remaining part, inundates his screenplay with aural and visible foreshadowing. The dialogue consists of an awesome variety of mentions of “final” and “remaining.” Nevertheless, in a extra revolutionary selection, he eschews the ticking clock machine one other filmmaker would possibly use to extend the running-out-of-time stress and as an alternative cuts to black between his brief scenes, inculcating a way of finality, claustrophobia and dread.
Aside from Sara, the supposedly good lady who retains making silly selections, the opposite characters are solely one-dimensional. As her supportive brother, Sedighian is completely unconvincing in his over-the-top, last-act actions. The low-budget manufacturing design wavers between too apparent (Sara framed behind the bars of the locked and sealed residence) and perplexing (why is Peyman’s residence furnished with an enormous Marilyn Monroe picture, a duplicate of Vermeer’s The Lady With a Pearl Earring and Da Vinci’s outstretched fingers?)
The movie opened in Iran this summer time, however failed to draw a lot viewers. In a rustic beset by social issues and the place so many much less proficient writer-directors ape Asghar Farhadi, it’s no surprise that comedies work finest on the native field workplace.
