King of the night
Following an argument, the hunchbacked father yells after his son Iman, telling him never to show his face at home again. Iman takes refuge with his friend, Haiduk. A dishevelled artist who lives in a crumbling house with his cat, Pistache, Haiduk offers his friend Iman a place to stay. "Well, you know your way around. We can be depressed together." The film strikes a downbeat but not cynical tone, into which a lot of important issues seem to flow almost incidentally. These issues are part of many people's reality in Iran: inter-generational conflict, money worries, depression.
The main storyline of A Tale from Shemroon takes place over a week in the lives of two brothers, Iman and Payar. This is no ordinary week – it begins on the night before their mother's funeral. That night, Iman gets a phone call from a friend, an Iranian who is usually based in Los Angeles. He asks Iman to get him some drugs for a party. And Iman, who is always on the go, promises to take care of it.
While adjusting to the new circumstances at home, Iman, Payar and their father also have to deal with a family feud over some land that represents all the wealth the family has left. Iman makes it his mission to see that this land isn't sold. Meanwhile, the water is turned off in the flat, but their father refuses to do anything about it.
He increasingly collapses in on himself and slips into a world of pain, opium and vanished authority. Payar stays with him; he wants to become a professional boxer and so doesn't go out partying. Iman, by contrast, has been tasked by his friend from Los Angeles with organising fresh supplies of "super coke". It makes Iman the "King of the night" – but not for long.
Party drugs, alcohol and opium
In Iran, drugs play a role in every social class for different reasons: fun, addiction, escape from depression. The layer of society in which this film is set predominantly consumes party drugs, alcohol and opium.
Drug-taking is a huge problem in Iran. Heroin and opium pass through Iran from Afghanistan and Pakistan on their way to neighbouring countries, and to Europe. Drugs are criminalised in Iran under the theocracy's strict moral laws, meaning that addicts are treated primarily as criminals, to the extent that 17 offences carry the death penalty. But this strict approach doesn't protect people when there is a lack of healthcare solutions to the problem. That said, the country has gained more rehab clinics and even an Alcoholics Anonymous group over the last few years.
Behind the storylines about the trade and consumption of drugs, however, the film explores something deeper. The closing credits end with the words: "It's all a legacy". This statement brings together two psychological themes that interest director and screenwriter Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi: inheritance and revenge.
These themes are revealed in the arguments over the family's land and Haiduk the painter's house. They show in the father's anger when he catches Iman trying to sell one of his mother's rugs. An unwritten rule says that what has been in the family for a long time must not be given away. The theme of revenge emerges in the speed with which conflicts lead to violence, which is met with violence in return.
The film gives us a little snippet of life in Tehran's middle classes, where diaspora Iranians also have a role to play. They seem more uninhibited; in part because they can leave again, and because with their new experiences, they indirectly show those who have remained in the country how boring life is in Tehran, where people are unable to fulfil all of their potential.
A life filled with boredom
The film is surprising because it gives an insight into how boring a life lived under restrictions in Tehran can be. People for whom so many things are officially forbidden look for loopholes. The characters in the film find various ways of dealing with their boredom and the other challenges facing them.
Iman may move in Tehran's more elevated circles, yet he always remains something of an outsider, owing to his lack of money and the fact that he sells drugs. "If they catch you, you're dead," Haiduk worries. "How are they going to get me?" Iman replies. "These people are untouchable." Iman thinks he's safer serving this well-connected class rather than dealing drugs on the street. Relationships are extremely important in Iran, and can bring huge advantages.
The film's success in presenting a realistic insider perspective is thanks to director Emad Aleebrahim Dehkordi's familiarity with life in Tehran, despite now living in France. He hints at his own story in the character of Hanna, the two brothers' neighbour.
In 2012, Dehkordi heard about a family quarrel that he has turned into the basis of this film, in a modified form. The story plays out over a week, its separate strands flowing into one another. The film's events do, however, just happen one after another rather than leading to an obvious climax.
The director's fascination with the narrative code of Persian fairy tales enriches the film's aesthetic, as in the case of Iman's embroidered motorbike jacket, for example. At the same time, it saturates the film with so many subtle allusions that even a second viewing doesn't fully elucidate them.
There is no need to spell everything out, of course, but a little more clarity might have helped the pace of the film. It took ten years to make, and is recognisably a directorial debut.
The film gives us aspects of Iranian life – such as exclusive parties, drug deals and boredom – that to date have rarely been shown. At the same time, these stories are not a representative picture of a generation, either. The circles in which the film is set are too exclusive for that. Even so, it is a valuable little piece of the puzzle for anyone who seeking a more multi-faceted impression of life in Iran.
© Qantara.de 2023
Translated from the German by Ruth Martin