Septembers of Shiraz Reviews

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I wonder what was the meaning of this beautiful title but you won’t get any answer after watching this flick. Anyway, even though the end-result was definitely half-baked, I still think it was a really strong story. Of course, there was the issue of casting Adrien Brody and Salma Hayek to play some Iranian characters, even though Hayek does have some Lebanese roots. Above all, beside this dubious casting, both actors didn’t deliver some strong performances here but they were not helped by the approach chosen with this material. Indeed, at some point, Isaac got arrested and it was as if the whole movie stood still for way too long after that. Basically, they gave us a seemingly endless back-and-forth between Isaac getting tortured and Farnez worrying about him and not much else. In fact, the most interesting thing was not the relationship between Isaac and his wife but between Farnez and Habibeh, her servant. Indeed, instead of showing the Iran revolution being led by some religious fanatics, they gave a different point of view showing that the social inequalities in this country also played a role. As a result, I was quite surprised that, according to this movie, the main motivation behind the Iranian revolution was actually maybe not religion but financial discrepancies between rich and poor in Iran. Unfortunately, this angle was never properly handled which really felt like a wasted opportunity. Instead, they kept hammering the fact that the Western Capitalist way of life is apparently the answer to all problems which is definitely not the case. Indeed, our way of life only seems to be the least of all evils and all alternative lifestyles are simply not tolerated. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in this subject. 

Between this and Argo, boy has American cinema turned an endlessly complicated event into a two-dimensional construct. Historical context or a decent grasp on the complexities at play? Don’t look here. Compelling and multi-layered characters? Nope, try again. But at least you get an international cast playing at accents. (Yeah, I mean you, Adrien Brody!) Well, except for Salma Hayek.

Septembers of Shiraz, or Enemy Territory depending on the location, follows a wealthy Iranian Jewish family as the revolution erupts around them. Do they support or oppose the revolution? I couldn’t tell you, but it isn’t long until Brody’s patriarch is imprisoned, tortured, and vainly trying to plead for mercy and escape. Hayek keeps the home fire burning, tries to get information on where her husband is and his alleged crimes, all the while sparring with the longtime housekeeper (Shohreh Aghdashloo, once again too good for the material handed to her). That’s it, that’s the entire movie.

If you’re wondering if there’s a happy ending and a reunion, there is. The myopic view of a fraught time demands a simplistic ending, just as it demands simplistic heroes and villains. The elites are poor victims of an ungrateful lower class, the revolutionaries are greedy thieves, and very little is made of the political and religious ideologies at play. What do you get? Another generic pseudo-history from Hollywood that’s too narrow-minded to develop anything beyond totems and slogans.