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Screenplay: |
Dariush Mehrjui
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Production: |
Farabi Cinema Foundation
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Cast: |
Ezatollah Entezami, Akbar Abdi, Hossein Sarshar, Iraj Rad,
Reza Rouigari, Ferdows Kaviani, Nadereh, Niaz Salimi,
Siavash Tahmoures
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Original Title: |
Ejare Neshinha
(AKA
"The Tenents")
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1987, 130
min - col |
An
old, crumbling building is occupied by four families. Abbas Agha
- a butcher who lives on the ground flor - has declared himself
the legal representative of the landlord. Encouraged by a
housing agency to take over the house, Abbas Agha prevents the
lodgers from repairing the house. Finally, the house crumbles
and occupants are physically and financially hurt.
This barbed cinematic satire takes place in a claptrap
apartment building in Tehran where the extremely unharmonious
relations between landlords and tenants are meant to reflect
larger national realities. As a nasty realtor works to evict the
tenants from the disintegrating low-rise in order to sell it to
German developers, the rentors band together and start repairing
the wreck. "The ensuing slapstick," writes Rita Kemley in the
Washington Post, "affords a mostly secular look at life in
the Islamic republic....The actors, apparently disciples of
Curly, Larry and Moe, give Westerners an altogether different
view of the Iranian Everyman."
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