BEAUTIFUL CITY
Iran, 2004, 102 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Esghar Farhadi.
Beautiful City is an ironic name for this film, focusing as it does on interpretation of Koran and Islamic law concerning capital punishment.
The film opens in a juvenile centre where a young man turns eighteen, the age at which he can be executed for murder. He is transferred to the prison for those to be executed. His friend in the juvenile centre, a thief, wants to help and persuades the authorities to let him go for a month to help his friend. He approaches his sister, the man who has to pay blood money so that the murderer of his daughter will be executed, he also encounters the wife of the father of the murdered girl, a woman he had married after her death. She has a disabled daughter who needs an operation and the money that would be paid for the blood money.
The characters interact, the father changing his mind several times, listening to mullahs and their interpretation of the Scriptures as well as the sympathetic director of the juvenile centre. The mother of the girl wants the money for the operation and also has a plot whereby the young man would marry her daughter and give her a sense of security. He, however, has fallen in love with the sister of his friend, a divorced young woman with a child, pretending to be married to an older man so that she would have protection in the neighbourhood.
Writer-director Esghar Farhadi made a very interesting film the year before, Dancing in the Dust, again about marital troubles, about a young man who went into the desert and fell under the spell of a snake charmer. This film is very powerful on Islamic law and capital punishment, but the resonances would be for those familiar with such law. The financial complications where the parent of the victim has to pay blood money is difficult to comprehend. The film is also difficult insofar as it works as a moral case and does not resolve the problems, leaving it to the audience to work out what they might do.
1. The impact of the film? Life in Iran? Crime and punishment? Capital punishment? The Islamic law on blood money for executions and the possibility of consent not to have an execution? For an Iranian, for a non-Iranian audience?
2. The atmosphere of the city, not a beautiful city, the juvenile detention centre, its ruggedness, the ugly neighbourhood where Akhbar's sister lives, the homes, the courts, the mosques? Musical score?
3. The nature of the Islamic law on capital punishment? Murder, the age limit eighteen? The financial arrangements, the parent of the victim paying the money? The consent for the execution? The themes of justice, the letter of the law, the searching for the Koran for images of mercy, tolerance? The emphasis on the image of God and the Koran as more merciful than vengeful?
4. Akhbar, committing murder at sixteen, his motives? In the juvenile centre, his moroseness, thinking that his friend was dead and the boys playing a trick? The celebration of his birthday, his going into the toilet and weeping? His being transferred for execution? The justice of this situation? Compassion?
5. His friend, Ala, wanting to help, pleading with the authorities, being allowed out, the difficulties in getting a lift, finding Akhbar's sister, explaining the situation, her husband and his aggression, the sister and her wariness? His continued pleading her softening her attitude, her child? His gradually falling in love with her? His going to the father of the victim, his pleas? The father's wife and the discussions? The religious elements, the legal elements? The sympathetic director from the juvenile centre and his opinions? Ala and his self-sacrifice, having nowhere to sleep? Meeting the sister, the discussions with her? The possibility of marrying her after he hears she is divorced? The meeting of the disabled daughter, the mother's plan, his going to visit, listening to the plan, his willingness and unwillingness?
6. The sister, her child, divorce, the old man and his brutality? The cover for drug dealing and cigarettes? Her suspicions, her discussions with Ala, his help, her accompanying him on the visits, the interviews? Her falling in love? The ending - and a possibility for marriage?
7. The father of the murdered girl, his being in mourning for two years, dressing in black, his severity, not giving his consent, wanting to pay the blood money, his wife wanting it for the operation for her daughter? His prayer, consulting religious leaders, listening to quotations about mercy? His changing his mind? Thinking of selling the house to get the money? His final dilemma?
8. His wife, her love for her own daughter, wanting the money for the operation? Discussions with Ala and others? Her compassion for her husband's son, yet her criticisms of him using her since she married him? Her plan for her daughter? The daughter, her being disabled, listening to the plans, changing her scarves, coming in - a figure of pity?
9. The authorities, the juvenile centre and the director, the sympathetic director? The religious leaders, their focus on mercy, helping Ala? The man's wanting to buy the house and his changing his mind after listening to Ala?
10. The moral dilemmas, the letter of the Koran, the letter of Islamic law, the justice of capital punishment, the nature of lore, deals and arrangements? The film leaving it for the audience to decide what they would do?
