Golden Blood
Golden Blood (Talad Khoon) [2022]
Direction by Ebrahim Sheibani
Starring: Zahra Hatami, Shahab Hosseini & Bahar Ghasemi
Language: Farsi
I often hear that China is going to be the next superpower, or that India will have its golden age soon. But I think people are ignoring that Iran is the next big thing in terms of film (I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again).
Anything that has been done by a director in the western world has probably been done by an Iranian director. The difference is that Farsi movies are three times more intense, five times more poignant, and ten times better to watch. I’m a Farsi movie convert, everybody, what can I say.
What I realized from this movie in particular was that class divide. I’ve mentioned it before whilst talking about Farsi movies, but it is very interesting how all the Farsi movies have coincidentally looked at class divide, whatever plot the movie may have. Iranian Farsi movies have done such an excellent job with giving those of lower income backgrounds an amplified voice, whereas Hollywood is very much focused on the extreme case, a hyper sensationalized reality. Because Iranian film focuses on a more common experience, it is far easier to digest a narrative. This movie in particular is a perfect example of this. Although the movie is a murder mystery (very unrealistic) it is put into the context of a single mother struggling against a society which persecutes against women (more realistic and easier to grasp).
This movie was a LOT more multifaceted than I had previously realized. What I originally thought was that this movie was solely going to be about one woman navigating a harsh justice system. However, the movie also acted as a metaphor for children growing up: a suspected arrest forces the main character’s children into living alone. Both are young, and the smaller one has a disability. In this respect the film is much more than what it is at a surface level: behind the suffering of the protagonist lies layers of betrayal, shame, unspoken resilience, with an undercurrent of feminism that is just astounding.
All I can say is that only Iranian filmmakers can make me sympathize with a murderer more than the person bringing justice. And that’s what I call the pleasure of film.
Napoleon was once quoted as saying: ‘Let China sleep, for when she wakes, she will shake the world.’ Switch out the China for Iran and the same is true in the world of cinema.
Loved this movie!
