Iranian flick out about squatted oil tanker

[Gerrard Winstanley]

Watch out for this new Iranian film


MOVIE REVIEW
'Iron Island'

Only countries under duress turn out motion pictures quite like the
new Iranian film "Iron Island."

By Kenneth Turan
Times Staff Writer
http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-et-island21apr21,0,3196411.story?coll=cl-movies-features

April 21, 2006

Only countries under duress turn out motion pictures quite like the
new Iranian film "Iron Island."

The second feature by young writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof, "Iron
Island" has made the Cannes-Toronto-Telluride festival circuit that's
become second nature to films from that country. But this is not a
typical Iranian production. Simultaneously deeply allegorical and
concretely physical, this striking film is not a typical production,
period.

Almost all of "Iron Island" takes place on a huge oil tanker abandoned
not far from the shore of the Persian Gulf. "There it stands, like a
rock," says the admiring Capt. Nemat (the veteran Ali Nasirian) as he
ferries new residents out to the vessel.

That's right, several hundred men, women and children live on the
tanker in a microcosm of society, from schools to work environments,
all overseen by the captain, who accepts no rent but keeps track of
expenses in a thick book and deducts them from everyone's wages.

Very much "Iron Island's" central character, the captain (whose name
resembles that of the legendary Captain Nemo) is without question the
law west of Dodge, so to speak. He is a stern, paternalistic
taskmaster with life-and-death authority over everyone on the ship,
but he does seem to care about the well being of his charges.

Among the people on board are a schoolteacher who keeps insisting the
ship is sinking, a young boy who frees small trapped fish and an old
man who does nothing but stare directly into the sun. "The Poseidon
Adventure" this is not.

Though there is a subplot about the captain's young protégé falling in
love with a girl promised to someone else, the emotional component of
"Iron Island" is not exceptional.

Rather, it is the attention "Iron Island" has paid to the details of
its physical setting that piques our interest. There is a whole
teeming city on this derelict boat, and watching everyone doing their
jobs (many of which involve taking the ship apart and selling the
pieces as scrap metal) is quite involving.

"Iron Island's" visual centerpiece is the captain's scheme to extract
and sell the oil that remains in the tanker. As shot by
cinematographer Reza Jalali, the sequence of bright yellow drums being
pushed overboard and joined by young men who will push them to shore
is haunting, exhilarating and quietly disturbing.

The notion couldn't be clearer that this derelict tanker, a place
where, in the filmmaker's words, "life goes on despite the problems,"
represents Iran, but beyond that it is difficult for non-Iranians to
go. Unlikely as it sounds, however, "Iron Island" does give us a sense
of what living in a country like that might be like. We may not
understand everything, but we understand enough.

'Iron Island'

MPAA rating: Unrated

A Kino International release. Director Mohammad Rasoulof. Producers
Mohammad Rasoulof, Abolhassan Davoodi. Screenplay Mohammad Rasoulof.
Director of photography Reza Jalali. Editor Bahram Dehghan.
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Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times