This
isn’t the sort of work the Private signed up for, assuming he had any choice in
the matter, which is doubtful. Regardless, no soldier wants to be assigned
duties within their own country, especially not as a body-fisherman. These are
not immigrants, so do not jump to conclusions, but they do say something about
their Iranian homeland in Behnam Abedi’s Whales
(trailer
here), which screens as part of Narrative Shorts
Block 1 at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in Park City.
Seven
bodies have washed up in the shallows, so it is the Private’s job to drag them
ashore, while his commanding officer busts his chops. It is a bad business,
even before he recognizes one of them. He cannot place where, but it still
personalizes the grim proceedings. Frankly, most locals will be happy to hear
the people in question are dead. Like the hunter who first called in the body
sighting, they have their reasons. Nevertheless, the Private and the Officer
will still find themselves in a moral dilemma.
Whales is not exactly a genre
film per se, but it is loaded with eeriness and foreboding. As is often the
case with many distinctive Iranian films, the ambiguity of Whales feels like a deliberate strategy. There is certainly space
in the film to ask who wouldn’t be crazy living in an oppressive environment
like that. Karma also plays a role in the film, in ways that are both obscure
and pointed.
As
the Private, Majid Norouzi is not just the film’s anchor. He really makes it
what it is. More than merely a resentful subordinate (although he is definitely
that too), Norouzi projects an existential confusion that expresses the essence
of the film. Abedi is also a wildly impressive filmmaker, who uses a full, wide
frame to artfully compose each shot. Admittedly, Whales demands the viewer’s full attention, but when granted, the
film delivers some unsettling surprises. Very highly recommended, Whales screens again Monday (1/22), as part
of Narrative Shorts Block 1 at the 2018 Slamdance Film Festival.