“Don’t
get involved” is the cynical mantra of western urbanites. Apparently, it also
applies in Tehran, with full force. A woman is in for a long but intense dark
night of the soul in Farnoosh Samadi’s short film, Gaze (trailer
here),
which screens during this year’s New Directors/New Films.
A
working-class woman has just completed her menial night shift job. She wearily
boards the bus, knowing she is on nights for the rest of the week and the following
week too. After calling the sitter who is anxious to leave, she sees a crime
being committed. The young punk in question also knows that she sees.
It
is tricky to produce genre films in Iran due to all the moralistic regulations.
However, Gaze probably comes the closest
to being an Iranian riff on the domestic thriller, in the tradition of Wait Until Dark and Sleeping with the Enemy. In a mere fifteen minutes, Samadi stages a
real white-knuckle cat-and-mouse game. Yet, aside from the suspense, there is a
viscerally dramatic depiction of a single woman’s vulnerability in Iranian
society (despite her being beyond reproach, morally and ethically).
