The Hunter

What a terrific, gloomy nihilistic tale of revenge from Iran, the kind of film that you'll never have in Europe and even less in Hollywood or simply United States. The poignant story of a man, ordinary citizen, whose wife and daughter disappeared after a street event, a protest street event, as you have galore in Iran, always against the regime. So this poor man's family is supposed to have been arrested or maybe killed. This feature is built in two different parts and the strength of it is that no scene is useless, no waste shot, only powerful angles, dialogues. It is depressing but makes the audience think about the Iranian society and human behavior in general.

This movie played at the International Film Festival in Berlin this year and it was in the official program/selection! A drama about a family living in a very disturbing time and regime. But don't expect the movie to give you some easy answers or an easy plot to follow. This is a difficult film, but that's the way they should be (with a theme like that).

Of course you could argue, that the ending isn't the one you would imagine, but hopefully the movie has gotten to you until this point, so that you can identify with the persons at some basic level. I liked it and I think it has some very interesting questions (that again won't be answered in the movie). Not an easy movie then, but if that's your cup of tea, you will be very pleased here

Rafi Pitts directs himself in a portrayal of a man left with a very compromised life after serving time in jail. All he has/cares about is his girlfriend and their daughter, but because of the past he is locked in a situation that gives them few chances to meet. As he works and lives in chaotic and overpopulated Teheran feeling chained to circumstances he finds some outlet in hunting, or rather just walking around with his rifle in the forest. While driving there's speeches from the supreme priest Ali Khamenei.

Then things takes for the worse as the only thing he held onto was taken away from him. First he looks for answers and help, but gets neither. What is then left? This is a grim and well-crafted thriller. The chase through foggy landscapes kept me on the edge of the seat. Look elsewhere if you want a optimistic sunshine story though. Recommended to people who have been to Iran and has a balanced view of the situation there. Don't come here for a first-impression of an amazing country.

I viewed The Hunter at TIFF, entering the theatre without having researched anything about the film. The only thing I knew was that it was an Iranian film. Essentially, I went in with an open mind and zero expectations, yet I still came out fairly disappointed.

The film kicks off full of energy with a still referencing tense relations enjoyed between Iran and America since 1979. We meet a lower-class average man named Ali who sports the same sullen face from beginning to end. Is he angry simply because his employment as a watchman doesn't afford him much time to see his family, or is there a deeper plot about his time spent in prison? We never find out. Why did he go to prison? We never find out.

Occasionally, Ali steals away from the city (where he's bombarded with political propaganda, which again is not touched upon in any detail) to a quiet area in the country he knows very well; a hunter and his trusty rifle alone in the wilderness. Ali stalks an unknown prey, and fires off a couple shots (probably the most exciting part of the film, as the gunshots are devastatingly loud). What is he hunting? We never find out. Does he actually kill anything, or bring it back home? We never find out. He must be the most incompetent hunter in the world, or he's letting off some steam. We never find out - especially given that he maintains the same sullen face upon returning home.

Even when his family dies as a result of a shootout between the police and "insurgents", Ali oddly expresses little, if any, reaction. Was his wife secretly an "insurgent" (and did he know?) or was she merely caught in the crossfire, as the police told him? We never find out. Why does he express zero emotion at the sight of his dead child's body? We never find out.

Eventually, with nothing to lose, he finally expresses some talent in hunting by plucking off two police officers driving down the highway. With the authorities chasing after him, you'd expect some feelings of anxiety or excitement, but it's too strewn out to be much enjoyed. Worse, a second plot that develops about the corruption of the two police officers who apprehend Ali drags out long enough for me to check my watch.

The Hunter is a film that appears constantly to reach for deeper themes, deeper emotion, and a deeper plot, but always falls short. Any promising element succumbs to extreme minimalism, which, ironically, destroys the element of art in film making by trying to be so artistic. It's not ambiguous, it's vague. It's not subtle, it's empty. And it's not patient, it's boring.

Such minimalism causes the viewer to imagine plot development, and it is the source of major frustration. It's like imagining vivid additions to a canvas painted in a single colour, but why are we making stuff up in our minds when the art piece should be guiding us along to the story? There is so much rich substance the director, Rafi Pitts (who stars as Ali), could have incorporated even slightly into the plot - namely Ali's past and his (and his family's) involvement with national politics. A quick and simple explanation that he served time for involvement in "insurgent" activities, for example, would have connected beautifully to his murder of two authorities from the state.

In my opinion, it wouldn't have taken much for Rafi Pitts to incorporate greater elements of political tension or character development (and background), as it's obvious there is a lot of rich substance to be drawn. Ultimately, The Hunter is a draft sketch of a screenplay prematurely put to the camera.

I'm sure an ivory tower film critic somewhere would praise The Hunter for its deep questions, but the reality is that the only question most will have after viewing the film is, "What the hell actually happened in that hour and a half?" And in case I entirely wrong about The Hunter, and I am actually too blind to notice a deeper connotation in the film, I award it 1 star out of 10.

There are things I liked about Iranian drama 'The Hunted': the scenes of quiet dialogue, where the meaning lies in what's not said, or the surreal waiting-for-Godot quality that the movie takes on as it nears its end. It's also interesting to see an Iran of stormy coasts and rain-swept forests, far from the classical image of a land of deserts. But the first half of the film is overly quiet and slow, and there are also a number of low-key scenes that have self-evidently been written and shot that way not for effect, but for budgetary reasons: the car chase, for example, is supremely low-energy, while other critical moments occur off-camera. More than anything else, however, the film is let down mostly by its odd plot, and the seemingly random motivations of its characters. It feels like the debut feature of someone with more than a few ideas, but without the practice of how to actually make them work as a film.