. Ahmad (Pouria Rahimi Sam)){kind=link}
Director Abbas Amini may not be one of the better-known Iranian filmmakers outside Iran. He has, however, been steadily building a reputation, both nationally and among film festival goers outside his homeland as a stylish and creative filmmaker whose films contain strong socio-political observations. His films have been picking awards from national and international film festivals. I had seen a couple of his movies, I am Here! And The Slaughterhouse (both 2020) and admired them. They were well-made, with strong narratives, visually stylish and scrutinizing socio-political issues.
Amini’s lates film is Endless Borders which is premiering at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Ahmad (Pouria Rahimi Sam) is a teacher. His current teaching post is a small outpost on the border of Iran and Afghanistan. This is not by choice. He has been exiled there for political activity not approved by the government. Though the place is a real nowhere land with just the most basic of amenities, he has to count himself lucky. His partner Niloofar (Minoo Sharifi), with whom he is desperately in love, was jailed for the same activities and has just recently been released on parole. Ahmad’s students and people in that locality are a mixture of locals, those from the Balooch tribe in Iran and illegal refugees from Afghanistan who have fled from the Taliban. The refugees live in fear and are always in the lookout for the border police who carry out random checks.
Director Abbas Amini and cinematographer Saman Lotfian often show Ahmad against a background of vast open barren and desolate space, not unlike Travis aimlessly walking in Wim Wenders’ Paris Texas. This has a dual effect. One is to heighten the feeling of loneliness and isolation that Ahmad is feeling. Secondly, we see that despite the vast open space he feels like a prisoner.
We know from Ahmad’s politically active nature that he is not someone who can sit still and be indifferent to any social or moral injustice that he witnesses. Therefore he tries to help the Afghan refugees evade the police. His much tougher task is to help two young lovers, a Baloochi boy and a local girl in love with each other. The problem is that the girl’s father has “sold” her daughter to be the bride of a man old enough to be her grandfather! If she tries to get away from the old man, his family would dispose of her in an act of “honour killing”.
Director Amini and his co-script writer Hossein Farrokhzad run the two love stories in parallel. Both sets of lovers are in perilous situations and are looking for ways to escape from their predicaments. In the case of Ahmad and Niloofar however, Ahmad wants to escape from Iran but Niloofar, despite all the hardship that she has endured, is reluctant to leave her father behind and get out of her homeland; sort of the reverse situation of the couple in Farhadi’s A Separation.
The attempts of both couples to escape adds a thriller element to the film. Amini with help from his editor Haideh Safiyari, who is the most prominent editor in Iran and Asghar Farhadi’s regular editor, rivet up the suspense as the couples get nearer to carrying out their plans.
Amini has packed a lot of issues in this 2-hour movie: racial prejudice, treatment of women in patriarchal societies, role of education and teachers in societies bound by tradition and religion. The greatest impression that the film makes however is that deep rooted and true love can create hope, courage, overcome fear and all the obstacles that stand in the lovers’ path to freedom. Endless Borders is another impressive film from Abbas Amini, who is clearly a director to watch.
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