VIFF’s Iranian entry by Director Naghi Nemati’s “Those Three” essentially encapsulates the story of three military recruits who, on a whim (seemingly spurred by the confiscation of their precious cigarettes — their last private pleasure revoked) desert their contingent amidst wastelands and a brewing snow-storm. They encounter a helpless pregnant woman cheated and abandoned by her guide, whom they add her to their retinue and a tedious journey ensues.
Evocative? Yes. Believable? No.
These soldiers are not your ‘flowers of youth’ but the exact opposite, stuck in an unsavory military setting that operates more as a prison. Defiant of authority they display redeeming moments, but only to co-operate for survival.
Nemati’s stylistic premise appears indecisive, struggling between the solely visual and symbolic, and the intrusive nature of human interactions. The beautiful landscapes belie an urgency to abort humans from it. If the film’s ambiance evokes a parallel to that of the three Wise Men and their encounter with the Virgin Mary, then it is a waffling commentary on the state of the Middle-East and the promise of hope– not in Supernatural deliverance, but the limited and threadbare actions of man. As the film closes dismally amidst the sounds of the shrieking newborn and the baying of wolves, the uncertainty is encapsulated by a montage of still-images of their frolicking in the warmth, freedom, intimacy of the Hamam (Bath-house) from an earlier moment of their lives versus the beautiful snowy wastes that enveloped them mercilessly.
Go for the visuals, the story itself is hardly realistic, and as I waited out the film, I noticed three audience members had the intelligence to walk out of the theatre before me.
SIMILAR POSTS:
PREVIOUS POSTS: « VIFF Review: I Just Didn’t Do It | MAIN PAGE | VIFF Review: Forbidden Lie$ »
