MAINLINE

Iran, 2007, 80 minutes, Black and white/Colour.
Baran Kosari, Bite Farahi.
Directed by Rakhshan Bani Etemad and Mohsen Abdolvahab.

Mainline is a film about a young girl drug addict. It takes place over twenty-four hours. The story has been done in the cinema of many cultures – thinking of Australian films like Little Fish, Candy as well as many American films. However, in some senses, this is a breakthrough for Iranian cinema. Up till the year 2000, there was little allusion to drug addiction in Iran. After that time it gradually became a presence in some of the stories, especially about some rich families with the young adults becoming addicts. The family in this film is also quite wealthy, educated, and the daughter subject to a broken marriage mixes with unsavoury types and becomes addicted.

The central character is very well performed – a tour-de-force by the young actress portraying the range of moods of an addict as well as the cravings. She is also very good in the emotional sequences with her mother during the day and her father.

The film focuses on the young woman, who has been promised in marriage to an Iranian who lives in Canada and who will come back to Iran in a month to announce the engagement. He is seen on some videos, waltzing and dancing, speaking affectionately to his fiancée via video. They communicate on the phone. However, he does not know that she is an addict. The mother is desperate, trying to take her to a rehabilitation centre but the daughter gets up to all kinds of ruses and devices in order to get the drugs. She buys some diluted drugs and is sick, gets out of the car many times, abuses her mother, runs away, depends on her mother for money. The mother is at her wits’ end trying to decide what is best to do for her daughter. They finally arrive in the country at the coast at her father’s house where mutual recriminations about the break-up of the marriage occur. Finally, they arrive at the centre for rehabilitation.

The film is very well acted, quite atmospheric – though the choice for black and white photography with the tinting of many pale red and blue object within the film is a bit hard to fathom. Is it meant to be some kind of unreal view of things that would affect an addict?

The film is salutary for Iranian audiences, a warning and graphic look at the effects of addiction.

1.The impact of the film? For Iranian audiences? The admission of drugs and problems, especially in the cities, the dealers, the middle-class wealthy who buy the drugs? Parents having to cope? Methadone programs?

2.The impact for international audiences, comparisons with films about drug addicts from different national cinemas?

3.The device of the black and white photography and the tinted objects? For what purpose? The effect – realism or surrealism? The finale with the orange tree close-up? The musical score and its moods? Opening with The Blue Danube and the waltz, using The Emperor Waltz, concluding with it? The contemporary songs?

4.The title, indication of drug addiction, dealing, programs?

5.The prologue, the opening of the blinds on Toronto, The Blue Danube, the waltz, the mother and daughter imitating the waltz in their own room in Iran? Arash(**??) and his looking forward to coming, his love for Sarah? The wedding dress? The impact of this on Sarah? On her mother? The phone calls to Arash, the mother ringing in the middle of the night, his phone call back? The question whether to let Arash know about Sarah’s addiction, the mother not wanting him to know, the father thinking that he should know?

6.The bond between mother and daughter? The preparation for the wedding, her going to Toronto? The next morning, Sarah’s disappearance? Her going to the city, getting drugs? Her mother’s desperation, the phone calls, to the doctor whose daughter was also addicted? Her defensiveness about her daughter? The daughter’s return, the exasperation?

7.The moods of Sarah, up and down, antagonism towards her mother? Learning later about her growing up with her father, her mother leaving to become an engineer, spending her teenage years with her mother? The father and his wives? The effect? The company she mixed with? Becoming an addict? On a methadone program? Trying to go cold turkey but failing, many ‘last times’? Wanting to be ready for Arash, really loving him, her delight in talking with him on the phone?

8.Persuading her mother to go to the mall, looking for the drugs, the connections with the dealers, the police and the crackdown? Seeing the woman, going to the square, the young man with the flower at the window of the car, giving her dirty drugs? Her being sick? The moods in the car, the phone calls? The intended visit to the rehabilitation centre? The ups and downs of her mother’s moods, the daughter sleeping, taking the injections? The mother weeping? Continuing the journey? The daughter driving the car, the police block, getting safely through it? Going to her father’s place? Her attempt to slit her wrists, going to the hospital, being bandaged? Feeling a failure and not being able to kill herself? The times when she got out of the car, running away? The mother hiding the drugs, giving them to her finally, throwing them into the water, her desperate search for them? The revelation of what it was like to be an addict? The physical pain, the cravings, the mental pain? The viciousness towards loved ones?

9.The portrait of the mother, her background, trying to deal with her daughter, do what was best? The pain and the hurt? The love, trying always to help?

10.The visit to the father, the wife going out leaving the father alone, Sarah going in to see him, playful? Phoning her mother? Her mother sitting by the water, not wanting to go in, the memories of the past? Being persuaded to go in, the meal together, the discussions, the recriminations? Sarah and the wedding dress, listening to her mother and father? The goodwill together, drinking together – and the scene from the sea, in full colour?

11.The morning after, the mother and the decision to drive to the centre, ringing her friend? The ups and downs of the daughter, the final desperate conflict? Her finally going?

12.The final scene, the mother talking with her friend, wondering about the marriage, the courses, the friend reassuring her that nothing was impossible?

13.The final glimpse of the group at the centre, their going indoors for a session, the receding camera and the orange tree?