manofintegrity

manofintegrity

Director: Mohammad Rasoulof
Country: Iran
Year: 2017
Running time: 117 min
In Farsi with English subtitles

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A MAN OF INTEGRITY

Reza, having distanced himself from the urban quagmire, leads a simple life along with his wife and young son, somewhere in a remote village in Northern Iran. He spends his days working on his goldfish farm. Nearby, a private company with close links to the government and local authorities, has taken control of nearly every aspect of regional life. Its shareholders, accumulating wealth, power and economic influence, have been pushing local farmers and small owners to sell off their belongings, farms and estates, to the benefit of the Company’s influential network and its monopoly. It is under their pressure that many villagers have themselves become local links in the larger network of corruption.

Iran’s Mohammad Rasoulof, whose latest feature THERE IS NO EVIL won the Golden Bear at last year’s Berlinale, has been making scathing social commentary of the Iranian regime for over a decade, but he remains relatively unknown and underappreciated in the US—despite winning numerous prizes at such top world film festivals as Cannes and Berlin. A MAN OF INTEGRITY reveals the corruption and state cronyism at the heart of one of the most powerful and influential regimes in the Middle East.

DIRECTOR'S NOTE

"I have so far produced up to six films, none of which ever screened in Iran – the land my stories and I belong to. Censorship’s jaws have shut all venues. Independent filmmakers, not dependent upon State funds for their production, constantly look for ways to circumvent censorship. To avoid the eyes of the censors and circumvent those crushing jaws, they either submit scenarios whose narratives are confined to the interior of an apartment or choose a location so remote that it practically puts the production out of their sight. However, all this inventiveness often ends up forgoing some of the common tools of cinematography: using small and non- professional cameras, renouncing to an operator and advanced lighting techniques, simple narratives... are ways independent cinematographers resort to keep production from additional harassment.

"In the underground films I have produced, I have used these stratagems while always trying to keep the narrative structure of the final cut devoid of any visible presence of the censorship’s limitations. A Man of Integrity’s story however was such that it made forgoing production means practically impossible. The story was so important to my eyes that it was unthinkable to have the censorship’s limitations palpable at first glance in the film’s structure. Producing it was not easy. And although its screening has been banned in Iran, I have not renounced obtaining the necessary authorization. Meanwhile, I keep looking for innovative ways to circumvent censorship while avoiding cinematographic limitations in production."

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PHOTOS

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PLAYDATES

1/19-22/22 International Cinema at BYU, Provo, UT

3/18/22 Univ. of Wisconsin Cinematheque, Madison, WI

6/15/22 South Bay Film Society, Redondo Beach, CA

6/17-23/22 IFC Center, New York, NY

6/17-30/22 New Plaza Cinema @ The West End Theatre, New York, NY

6/24-30/22 Laemmle Monica, Santa Monica, CA

6/24-30/22 Laemmle Town Center, Encino, CA

7/1-14/22 Zeitgeist Theatre & Lounge, New Orleans, LA

7/21-22/22 Cleveland Cinematheque, Cleveland, OH

8/19-21/22 MSP Film, Minneapolis, MN

9/1-7/22 Puerto Rico International Film Festival, San Juan, PR

9/13/22 Grand Cinema, Tacoma, WA

10/25/22 Vermont International Film Festival, Burlington, VT

11/11-17/22 California Independent Film Festival, Orinda, CA

12/16-18/22 Flint Institute of the Arts, Flint, MI

2/26-27/23 AFI Silver, Silver Springs, MD

3/6-10/23 Fresno Filmworks, Fresno, CA

 

REVIEWS

“Rasoulof’s realism is radical in the literal sense: he exposes the root of Iranian society and reveals its founding premise to be the all-pervasive source of injustice and corruption. “A Man of Integrity” is both a work of political defiance and of artistic audacity.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“An uncompromising drama from one of Iran's most outspoken directors.” – Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

"A satisfyingly gritty addition to Iran's tradition of humanist cinema." - Wendy Ide, Screen International

"[A] brave, underground production...manages to resonate on both specific and universal levels." - Alissa Simon, Variety

 

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