DEATH IS MY BUSINESS

Iran, 2011, 90 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Amir Saqafi.

Death is My Business is one of the most gruelling films to watch – somewhat akin in locations and journey with Peter Weir’s The Way Back.

The film is the work of the writer-director who was twenty-three, a philosophy student, when he made this debut film. Technically it shows a great deal of talent and style. It is also very grim in its perspective – no relief for characters or audience.

The film is set in the mountains of Iran, in a remote village. A group plans to steal cables from the overhead power lines but are caught and set upon by people from the village. One of the men is electrocuted, another is bashed and arrested, the third escapes. The film tells the story of what happened to the two men. The one who escaped gets his little daughter, sets out for the mountains to go to another village. The film shows, in great detail, the hardships of this journey across the mountains, the man and his desperation, though wounded. He is also solicitous for his little girl, abandoning her at one stage but going back for her. The prospect for their survival is grim. The other man who is taken prisoner, is accompanied by a policeman and is being driven to another town. However, there is an avalanche and their car is stopped. The soldier decides that he and the prisoner will go through the mountains for help since the car has broken down. The driver remains. The soldier, weakened by long service, is in a state of collapse, the prisoner has some strength but is handcuffed. This trek through the snow seems even more pessimistic than that of the man with his daughter.

In the end, there seems to be only futility, no escape.

The film is impressive – though very difficult to watch.

1. A gruelling experience, fate, grim, nihilistic?

2. The title – and the question of who is ‘my’? God, the elements, fate, the human condition?

3. The countryside, the plains and the mountains, the roads, the pylons? The musical score?

4. The village, poverty, the huts, the line for food, the lack of medical help, the police centre?

5. Winter in the mountains, the sound of the wind in the snow, the look of the snow, freezing? Barren landscapes?

6. The opening with the bus and the travel, arrival, the detail of the stealing of the cables, the background of selling the cable, the law, the issues of unemployment, desperation?

7. The old man at the beginning, his being despised, his arrival on the tractor, the attack, the bashing, his being rescued?

8. The old woman on the road, asking about her son, waiting, her deteriorating eyes, the drops? Her encounter with the prisoner?

9. The attack at the pylon, the wire, the fight, the explosion and the dead man hanging? One man fleeing? The arrest of the other? The vindictiveness of the attackers?

10. The fugitive’s story, the chase, the house, the man taking his daughter, her radio, asking money from the boss, his escape, the long journey through the snow, endurance, carrying his daughter, hanging her in the tree, going to rescue her, the hut, death?

11. The prisoner, the police squad, the soldier, his story, the handcuffs? The van, the driver? The mountains, the road blocked, the radiator failing? The driver staying?

12. The prisoner and the soldier, the journey through the snow, the soldier becoming weaker, the prisoner and his strength, the loss of the key for the handcuffs, the loss of the bullets? The prisoner carrying the soldier?

13. The boss, his going to the doctor, the glasses, leaving? The final scene in the bus?

14. The no way out aspect of this story, fate and its grim realisation?