KHOOK/ PIG

Iran, 2018, 90 minutes, Colour.
Hassan Majooni, Leila Hatami, Leili Rashidi.
Directed by Mani Haghighi.

This is a very striking title for a film from an Islamic country, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran. It sounds offensive, profane.

It takes a while for an audience to work out what is happening in this film and how seriously it should be taken and how much is satire and parody. In fact, it is a parody – although, the opening sequence sets a tone about social media in Iran, a group of veiled schoolgirls are walking in the street, busy with their mobile phones, with their cameras, taking selfies. Then there is a change as one of the girls sees decapitated head lying in the gutter.

The background of the plot is that a number of significant film directors are being beheaded, their heads left behind and their bodies disappearing. But, the central character, Hassan, a film director who has been banned from filmmaking for several years is quite upset that he hasn’t been murdered. He is quite a narcissistic man, vain, full of self-importance, but one of the scruffiest- looking film directors one will ever see, loud clothes, T-shirts with band logos like AC-DC.

Actually, he is making a commercial and there is a sudden song and dance routine, the women all in bright red. But it is a television commercial for a spray against insects! The director is working on it, clashing heartily with the producer, his daughter also producing.

In the meantime, the Hassan is upset with his favourite actress with her appearing in a film by his rival – some comic touches in the scene of a story of Iranian antiquities.

When the directors continue to be murdered, Hassan is upset, especially when his favourite star is also murdered. In the meantime, he is in discussions with the police. He plays tennis with his best friend but, is eventually arrested on suspicion.

There is a climax in a warehouse where he is setting up a pose with his friend to be photographed to prove his innocence and that he had alibis for the other murders. This has been complicated by young actress taking a video of his confrontation and angry outbursts against his favourite actress and this has had over 1 million hits on YouTube?.

The villain, who has confessed, eventually appears, with a pig mask over his head. There is some mayhem – but the director’s eccentric mother, previously seen with a rifle, comes in and there is some effective blasting to save the day. Wife and daughter are both men busy on social media, putting the video of everything up on Instagram …

Tehran may not seem so isolated as it may have seemed in the past…

1. A perspective on Iran? The atmosphere? The city of Tehran?

2. The plausibility of the plot? Satire and parody? The focus on cinema, celebrities?

3. Tehran, the streets, Hassan and his home, the studios, the performance for the television commercial, the scene in the desert? The warehouse?

4. The musical score, the songs? The commercial? The tone?

5. The opening, the girls, giggling, with their phones, social media, selfies? Finding the decapitated head?

6. The scenario, the attack on the film directors, the deaths, beheading, the bodies lost, and heads found only? The campaign – the revelation of the killer, motivation, ideology?

7. The gallery, Hassan and his scruffiness, observing the pictures, watching Shiva, her talking to the director, his hand, breaking the glass? His rival? The deaths, the funerals, the speeches?

8. The advertisement, the costumes, song and dance? The contrast with his rival and his antiquity film, the costumes, the performances, the interruption?

9. Hassan and his liking to play tennis, his best friend? Their working together – the end, the posing for proving himself an innocent, his friend being shot?

10. Visit to the morgue, identifying the heads, Hassan fainting.

11. His relationship with his wife, at home, estrangement, the role of Shiva, his daughter working production? His mother, the Turkish background, becoming senile, her rifle?

12. Shiva, her role, her death?

13. The scene with him confronting Shiva on YouTube?, the number of hits, the young actress?

14. His arrest, the police and the discussions?

15. His dream sequence, Shiva in the sky, his wandering the desert?

16. Hassan as narcissistic, vain, wanting to be a celebrity, wondering why he wasn’t murdered? The setup, the photography, his friend’s death? The killer with his pig mask, his ideological stances? The mother shooting the Pig? And everybody rushing to get the events uploaded onto social media and measuring the hits and likes?

17. Iranian comedy and satire?