La vida de los demás

Prison guards are prisoners themselves, yet they are responsible for their action, in a system that is brutal and oppressive.

Can people abrogate their ethical, humane responsibilities on the ground that they are just following the orders?

Oppressive system break people in more than one way, by denying their rights and forcing, "encouraging" them to conform and oppress others which in turn shatters their humanity!

So who is the evil? The system ( which is made of individuals) or those individuals themselves, with varying degrees of responsibility.

There is always a price we pay for "choices" we make, just as there are reward(s) for those choices. Conformity and making unethical choices, can provide some type of " security", but may not provide peace of mind or ease the pain and the consequences of those choices.

This is well made movie that explores the role of people in a repressive environment, the choices they make and the consequences of those choices in romantic love, alienation, separation, pain and guilt feeling. State enforced capital punishment ( provides the context for the story flow. With lovely cinematography, and a deliberate slow motion in some sequences for viewers contemplation. The acting is good, with emotions well reflected in many close ups. The director should be congratulated for being brave, as making such a film in Iran is not just about budgeting and casting and other tasks of film making, but also risking one's live and making a choice about consequences of such film making.

Modern day iranian filmaking,, this is a bold try,the message delved deep inside a maze of 4 loosely connected stories intoo a whole where regimecritizism is on the agenda. its a beutiful filmographic piece of the art, that may not reach a westeners expectations when viewing it, but its really a roar against the shahlalalalalalala( like the chorus in a bjørn eidsvaag song) shia government of good old persia, todays iran. its a very slow plotted movie, but i guess thats done with a great sense.

its a film about the nations 20 months military service, its about death sentencing, its about being locked up when doing your duties on others locked up, its about political refugees, and its about human relations of many levels, and its view on human rights.

in my opinion its the first part that make the deepest imprint on my mind, just compare the hypnotic effect of the traffic lights colours on the main caracter in this chapter.

the actors are just eminent in their job, dead natural over the whole line, and i really appreciate that the women may show their beautiful faces to the world, compared to other muslim countries. its just not a film for everyone cause its slow and its political, but if interested in iran and persian filmaking this is good stuff thinks the grumpy old man

This is one of the best movies of this year. After denouncing the corruption system in Iran, Rasoulof targets the death penalty. He doesn't seem very bothered by the censorship or the jail sentence against him. The film is beautifully shot, and the stories are cleverly told, depicting four different ways to be a victim to death penalty as an executor.

The rhythm and rate of movie is a little bit slow but, episodes are well timed. The movie is about responsibility of our actions, said the writer and director m.rasoulof. There are 4 episodes in the total runtime of 150 minutes,each one's quite independent of other episodes. In summary the movie is well-made, with a lot of eye catching scenes and touching twists. Combinated by outstanding performance of actors.

Just think of this work as the director is completely banned from any form of action and refused to coaprate with a system he did not believe in. So the recordings was quietly done in Iran before the film maker goes to jail for his civil disobedience and protest.

This was some of the finest acting in film I've ever seen. Some of these scenes I felt guilty watching because I felt like I was actually there and spying on them.

Every act was thought provoking and perfectly executed. Some of the scenes were masterpieces of visual art. The girl standing against the wall of the house with her red boots blew my mind at how visually perfect it was and reminded me that scenes like this are not common in film making anymore.

This is the film to watch when you're tired of superficial films and want to watch something deeper with substance and fine acting.

I'll be looking for more from this director and these actors and actresses.