Copyright Featured Image and Page Header Image: Aryana Film.
The story of Gheisar is about revenge.
A girl is raped and she commits suicide. Her elder brother tries to take revenge, but is murdered. So, there is a task to be done by the last remaining man, her younger brother. He has a good job and also a beautiful fiancee, but he sacrifices himself in his quest to murder his three opponents. Actor Behrooz Vosoughi is convincing as the tough guy, dangerous, silent, angry.
The film offers us a great amount of realism: we see a lot of authentic, contemporary street life of Tehran. Many scenes were shot on location at the railway station, in bars, the bazar and in old city houses.
But the film is also extremely stylized, like an opera, with a sweeping score composed by Esfandiar Monfared Zadeh. The revenge is visualised in lyric scenes of violence, carefully prepared and performed. The first liquidation is in a public bath, the second in a slaughter house and the third at a rail yard.
Director Masud Kimiai and his crew made a stunning piece of genre cinema, labelled as ‘Film Farsi’. It has also a high quality, demonstrating both a personal touch and great craftmanship.
It could be labeled as a melodrama: this time not about a match between two lovers which is restrained, but about self-esteem and family honour which has to be protected at all cost. This is obviously presented as a serious business, located in a men world.
In many respects, Gheisar could be seen as the Iranian equivalent of spaghetti westerns of Serge Leone.
Director Masud Kimiai made also Reza Motori (1970), Ghazal(1975), Ghavaznha (Deers, 1976), Safar Sang (Journey of the stone, 1979).
Recommended reading:
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Shahla Mirbakhtyar, Irianan Cinema and the Islamic Revolution, Jefferson: Mc Farland, 2006, pp. 58-63.
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Jahed, Parviz (ed.) Directory of World Cinema: Iran, London: Intellect Books, 2012, pp. 137. URL: http://worldcinemadirectory.co.uk/component/film/?task=view&id=974
