FRIDAY SOLDIERS
Iran, 2004, 120 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Masud Kimia'ie.
Friday Soldiers was popular in Iran and its director and writer has a very strong reputation, especially in his connections with Abbas Kierostami. He even appears after the credits asking his actors to start their action.
However, the film is particularly difficult for a non-Iranian audience. It is very wordy, tends to use a televisual style of close-ups and reaction shots over the two hours. It also highlights an extraordinary number of social problems in Iran, especially in the city.
The film introduces four soldiers in training and their commanding sergeant. Two of them clash at the beginning but become good friends. They then go on a Friday leave. The first is to the family of the aggressive soldier, his mother has died. The family are in mourning. However, they also have problems when his sister has murdered her drug-addicted husband after he had sold her daughter. She is at the funeral in handcuffs. The film then moves on to the sergeant's problem, his daughter who has continued fits and is in need of continual care. The bulk of the film focuses on the new recruit, a wealthy young man and his drug-addicted sister. A large part of the film is the narrative by the sister of how she came into her drug addiction, her love for a professor of philosophy who was killed, a scheming man introducing her to drugs in her grief, her becoming totally dependent on him. The fourth problem is dealt with rather briefly, the other soldier has a girlfriend who was raped by three men - but he is still willing to marry her. The finale is quite appalling as the soldiers get some baseball bats done rather stylishly by a carpenter and then, with the sergeant, go and bash the drug-addicts.
The film seems interminable, overacted for Western sensibilities. However, it does reveal the extent of pressure in marriages, violence and murder, the increasing presence of drug addiction.
1. The impact of the film? The cumulative effect of the problems? Of the verbal treatment and the storytelling and reflections?
2. The military barracks, the Teheran setting? The affluent homes, the abattoirs and the drug dealing, the universities, the streets and cafes? The recording studio? The musical score?
3. The focus on the soldiers, the recruits, the gravity of the commanding officer, the young man in the cell and his being allowed out, the new recruit and his being picked on by the other soldier? Their going with the sergeant, in the car, the prostitute on the street, buying the drinks and giving her one and going on?
4. The death of the soldier's mother, his brother's presence, his sister in handcuffs, her story about killing her husband and his selling her daughter for drugs? The ceremonies of mourning, the rich soldier buying the black shirts for them? The family interactions?
5. Going to the recording studio, the brother and his recording, the others watching, the rich soldier's sister arriving?
6. Going to the wealthy home, the dogs, the soldiers settling down, taking off their shoes (with the holes in their socks)? The sister and her long narrative about her addiction, the brother listening? Her taking the drugs? As a young girl, at the university, her admiration for the professor, the crowd's listening to him, the murder of intellectuals, the robbery? Her grief, the dealer and his way of consoling her, giving her the drugs, making her dependent? Her going to the abattoirs? The rich man taking her to his home? Her attempts to get away, her always succumbing? Her brother and his listening, his reactions, his having got away to military service to escape this reality? The other soldiers listening and their grief?
7. The soldier and his lame brother, his father, mending the motorcycles? The talk about the rape, his willingness to marry the young woman? His going for a bike ride?
8. The going to the carpenters, the fashioning of the baseball bats, meeting with the sergeant, the brutality of their bashing the drug dealers? The sergeant at the railway station - the sister having spurned the drug dealer? The end?
9. The resonances of the beginning of the 21st century in most cultures with marriage breakdown, the escalation of violence, drug addiction? The vigilanteism of the end?
