‘The Old Bachelor’: Rotterdam Review

Dir/scr: Oktay Baraheni. Iran. 2024. 191mins.

Two middle-aged brothers reside unwillingly below the meaty thumb of their monstrous, bullying father  in a as soon as snug, now squalid Tehran residence in a rundown constructing. The sons hope to influence their father to promote the constructing, however as an alternative he rents the higher ground to a charismatic divorcee who – unbeknown to her – he hopes to marry. Her presence units in movement a devastating chain of occasions and simmering jealousies which look set to tear the household aside. Oktay Baraheni’s excellent second characteristic is a gripping home saga of unhealthy blood and worse males.

A gripping home saga of unhealthy blood and worse males

With its vividly insalubrious backdrop of drug-taking, prostitution and damaging, savage chauvinism, this a imaginative and prescient of Iran that’s occasionally seen on display screen. There are some parallels with Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider maybe, which was impressed by the identical real-life serial killer case as Ebrahim Irajzad’s Killer Spider, for which Baraheni wrote the screenplay. Winner of Rotterdam’s Large Display screen Competitors, The Outdated Bachelor must be a title of appreciable curiosity for competition programmers. Distributors or bespoke streamers who can get previous the potential stumbling block of a three-hour-plus operating time could possibly be rewarded by essential assist and optimistic viewers phrase of mouth.

The Outdated Bachelor follows Baraheni’s debut, Bridge Of Sleep (2016), which was loosely primarily based on ’Crime And Punishment’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky. As soon as once more, there are Russian literary inspirations for this image: Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov is pointedly referenced in an early scene within the bookshop the place one of many brothers, the subdued Ali (Hames Behdad) works, and Baraheni additionally cites The Fool as certainly one of his influences. Certainly,  Baraheni’s writing is among the key elements within the movie’s capability to maintain its stress efficiently over a prolonged operating time. He has a present for crisply persuasive dialogue that appears, on a superficial stage, to be virtually banal, however which peels again to disclose decades-old, bone-deep wounds.

Equally essential are the uniformly glorious performances: Leila Hatami (finest recognized for Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation) is a magnetic presence because the divorcee, her sultry gaze in a position to cease a person in his tracks. It’s no marvel that each the previous man, Gholam (Hassan Pourshirazi), and his first son Ali (the eponymous bachelor), are each keen about her. As Ali, Behdad performs a person whose inherent decency and advantage have made him a goal, not only for his father and half-brother, brash aspiring property developer Reza (Mohammad Valizadegan), however for any wannabe alpha male trying to show his standing. Ali’s spirit could also be stunning, however it’s damaged.

Valizadegan’s nervy, impressionable Reza is extra hot-headed however much less constant. He fantasises about murdering his father however will be bribed to facet along with his dad in an argument with the reward of a brand new cellphone. However the darkish coronary heart of the movie is Pourshirazi, magnificent within the position of Gholam. He has the lumbering gait of a creature that has simply emerged from hibernation; enormous, crushing palms which can be designed to harm. He smokes heroin and picks fights in a dingy basement room full of fellow addicts. His larded complexion has a perpetually glistening layer of dope sweat. He’s the sort of man who would fairly destroy all the things and everybody than admit defeat.

The placement decisions – specifically the residence – are grimly atmospheric, and the manufacturing design provides layers to our understanding of this murky household historical past. Good-looking work (of murderous patriarchs) trace at a time when the constructing was full of antiques and tradition, however now the digital camera lingers on the oily, encrusted fingerprint on the button of the microwave oven, and Gholam’s drawers stuffed with half-empty methadone bottles. A stress cooker stress builds within the residence, together with the cigarette butts and takeaway cartons, resulting in a killer last act of sustained and bloody ferocity.