The Sundance Film Festival (January 23-February 2) includes two titles involving Iran. One is Terrestrial Verses co-director Alireza Khatami’s Turkey-set thriller The Things You Kill, while the other is a documentary about a motorbike-riding village councilwoman in rural Iran.
Both films won awards at Sundance on Friday, as did the Indian movie Sabar Bonda, about the relationship between two men in a village in Maharashtra. Rohan Parshuram Kanawade’s Marathi-language feature debut won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic prize.
In its citation for Sabar Bonda, the jury stated: “This is the great modern love story. To say it’s an honor to award this tender film is an understatement. We cried, we laughed, and we wished to be loved in the same way. It is exactly what the world needs right now. This authentic point of view opens the door to an intimate language we all understand. We feel the humming heartbeat of the main character’s inner life, and when it bursts, it wraps us with its sweetness.”
The Things You Kill: The never-ending cycle of violence
From the highs of the terrific Terrestrial Verses (2023), Alireza Khatami settles down somewhere in the middle with The Things You Kill. Khatami’s new movie is set not in his native land but in Turkey.
The Things You Kill is styled on recent Turkish realist dramas that revolve around crime. The ethical dilemmas that haunt Ali will be familiar to anyone who has seen Between Two Dawns, Burning Days or Hesitation Wound.
Burning Days actor Ekin Koc plays Ali, a college lecturer whose fraught relationship with his father goes sideways after his mother’s death. Ali refuses to believe that his mother died because of a fall. With the help of his gardener Reza (Erkan Kolcak Kostendil), Ali sets into motion a series of events that evoke David Lynch’s films, particularly Mullholland Drive, in their surreal touches.
The dog is resentful by nature, Ali tells Reza about his fearsome canine. Nobody is resentful by nature, Reza replies. Khatami’s film is a not-entirely smooth exploration of the way in which resentment, anger and violence pass down through generations, particularly among men.
Khatami likes to stretch out scenes to explore the volcanic nature of bitterness, which results in deliberate, occasionally plodding pacing. The slow-burning approach does showcase the controlled compositions and magnificent locations, particularly the vastness that surrounds Ali’s orchard.
The actors too get the expansiveness to lay out their characters. Ekin Koc is especially impressive as a man pushed into confronting a legacy that hasn’t left him untouched. The Lynchian element gives the film much-needed edge and a quality of uncanniness.
The Things You Kill scooped the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic prize. The jury citation said: “This effortless, streamlined film does not sacrifice its depth of subject even while dealing with toxic masculinity and the everyday darkness of the soul. This director was masterful in their precision, they were profound yet restrained, and their robust vision pushes us to want more, think more, and do more to be better humans.”
Cutting Through Rocks: Motorcycle Diaries
The minute we lay eyes on Sara Shahverdi, we know that she is unusual, not just in her village in northwest Iran, but in other parts of the world too.
Sara dresses up in male clothing, rides a motorcycle, and is unapologetic about being a divorcee. She is a role model for the women and girls in her village as well as a speck of dust in the eye for the men.
Cutting Through Rocks by Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni follows Sara on her bid to be the first woman to win a local council election. The observational documentary sticks closely to its dauntless heroine, peering in on her arguments with her large family as well as witnessing her ugly conflicts with men who hate her guts. Just when it appears that Sara is hogging the show, and there isn’t enough on how others view this maverick, the film opens out to reveals her travails.
Sara is so special that if she didn’t exist, she would have to be invented. Her pluck and overall personality carry the film through its seemingly scripted patches
Cutting Through Rocks won The World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at Sundance. In its citation, the jury said: “This beautiful and nuanced portrait shows us a fearless eccentric who confronts male-dominated society when she runs for office in a remote Iranian village. Her determination, warmth, and humor and the way her story is told left us in awe.”
Also read:
In Marathi film ‘Sabar Bonda’, the forbidden fruit of gay love
Sundance 2025: In ‘Didn’t Die’, an Indian American family battles zombies
