EJHDEHA VARED MISHAVAD!/ A DRAGON ARRIVES!

Iran, 2016, 107 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mani Haghighi.


A Dragon Arrives is an intriguing drama from Iran.

The film is set in the present but begins in the mid-1960s, an investigator being interrogated, grilled about what happened to him on an archaeological site. It emerges that several of his associates at the dig are also being interrogated by a representative of a mysterious agency.

The film is set on an island off the coast of Iran, Qesham, a desert island with high mountains. The audience is told of the story about the British adventurer, Baffin, who explored northern America and gave his name to bay and island. He went to Iran to negotiate a trade deal with the Portuguese but the Portuguese were massacred and their boat stranded on land. This is visualised in flashback.

The film moves to the present with the director himself discussing issues with his mother, her finding a box with documents and mementos of the period, and the director’s desire to make a film about the situation as well is to investigate what happened. There are sequences with his team of researchers and writers, doing interviews, especially with the interrogator from the 1960s who is still alive, and a woman involved in theatre design (with a rather long theatrical sequence presented, though its purpose is not clear).

Gradually, the events are uncovered, mystery brought out – that there is an earthquake when the investigators started digging and holes emerge with the quake as well as mysterious sounds and the suspicion of the presence of a strange creature. Another part of the plot involves a father and his daughter, his suppressing her, and her giving birth to a baby which is taken on by the sound engineer of the expedition and who becomes very attached to her, even rescuing her – and the researchers interviewing her later.

The film has its moments of mystery, of excitement, of puzzle.

1. The true story, invented elements? 1965, the exploration and digging? The later discovery of the tapes? The box? Interviews? The title?

2. The locations, the sea, the desert, the mountains? The musical score?

3. The story of Baffin, his exploration in the Arctic, British background, coming to Iran, the treaty, the clash with the Portuguese, the confrontation, the massacre, the grave, the ship and its being stranded in the desert?

4. 1965, and the explorer’s internment, the interrogator, the intensity of the questions and answers, his being unconscious, internment? The mystery, his attempts at the explanation? The role of the interviewer – and his later being found alive and giving information for the film?

5. Interrogation, the agency, the purpose of questioning? The mission, the personalities, the locals, the Indian workers coming in, the digging, the equipment, the fights, the assistant technician for sound? The assistant? Working together?

6. The experiences of the earthquakes, locals, the effect on the Indians, the holes, the Indian falling through, his rescue? Intimations of the creature?

7. The local, the shark hunter, his daughter? Death? The birth of the baby, the screams? Keyvan and his care, going back for the baby, the rescue, the old woman giving the baby, shooting the man?

8. The escape, the killings, Barbak and his death, urging them to go back to the baby, the chase, burying him in the water?

9. Later, the mystery, the interrogator, the woman from the theatre, the sequence of the performance of the play and its purpose? Barbak, the message, the box? The assistant, giving the woman the message, the search of the box, its contents? 1982, Keyvan returning in 1987, his death?

10. The director, interest in the story, the discovery, the role of his mother, the box and the search, learning, the further research by the team, the interviews, the writing of the screenplay? The effect?