Rakhshan Bani-Etemad's TALES is a film which oozes anguish from every frame. It's telling us that the society she is showing is in miserable disarray. There is a sanctions hit the already distressed message in there too. This gets automatic enthusiasm from some activist commentators and automatic dismissal from the entertainment lot, in the unlikely event that they stray into a showing.
The production was shot piecemeal, getting censor clearance for shorts being easier than for features. There isn't even the linking devices of U.S. films like TALES OF MANHATTAN or THE GUN. The characters from one episode walk out of the frame to leave those of the next. We do get a documentary film maker appearing from time to time - one sustained take represents his coverage of a van full of dispossessed factory workers.
Not all the stories convince or involve but the final dialogue between the dried-out junkie social worker and her ex student-demonstrator taxi driver is a grabber.
This and the film's addition to those other movie accounts of present day Iranian life make it worth attention.
Moaadi, the star of A SEPARATION appears and the meager production values represented by the usual washed out colour are more than adequate for the task.
