Salam Cinema: Movie Review

Salam cinema grabs your attention with its first shot, where you see thousands of people gathered outside a building waiting impatiently to give their audition. The shot and the sound makes you a little uncomfortable. It makes you feel you are part of the chaos, waiting for your big break. There was movement in the first shot and you could feel your movement with the cameraman, looking at the chaos outside the audition theatre. After a while you get to know that the director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf is looking for candidates who will be both subject and actors in his film.

During the whole movie you could also see shots of the crew members. It was interesting to see the other side of the film process. It made you constantly switch between being a viewer and a participant. There were scenes where a cameraman would get emotional after listening to one of the candidate’s story or where a crew member stops and laughs with the candidate. It was fascinating to actually see what goes on behind the camera. The emotion that a camera portrays is also the emotion the camera feels.

Makhmalbaf’s candidate selection for the film was also quite interesting. He rightly captured the essence of cinema and the passion the people of Iran have for the cinema. The film had everything, from drama to action to comedy and the overwhelmed feeling you get in the end. It had everything you expect from a film.

The subjects or the actors in the film were passionate, intense and dedicated towards becoming an actor. We are shown the first candidate and he swears that he is blind. Makhmalbaf believes otherwise, he repeatedly asks the candidate if he really is blind. The candidate later confesses he is not and delivers an emotional monologue about his passion for cinema and how he thought being blind might have helped him fulfill his dream. It was shocking and emotional at the same time. How far can a person go to achieve his dream? Is this right? Was lying in his case justified? That is not for us to decide. Things are not black and white, our world is grey and our reasons for doing certain things are too. Makhmalbaf appreciated this too and reacted to his lie in the same way, he wanted to know his reason for lying about his sight.

The rest of the film had two main protagonists. First was the lady who wanted her lover to notice her through this film. She had a different reason to be there, it was not her passion for cinema but her passion for love. It was interesting to see how cinema connected people. The room had different people there for different reasons. For some cinema is the destination and for others it is the path to reach somewhere else.

Second was a young girl and her friend, both 16 years old. They expressed their passion for cinema since they were little kids and how badly they want to be artists. Makhmalbaf tested their passion of cinema and played with their emotions to judge it. He repeatedly asked them to laugh and then cry, then demeans them when they are unable to cry. The young girl feels agitated after being forced to cry but Makhmalbaf grills her even more. She explains that she cannot cry easily and was skeptical about the purpose of crying to prove that she is an artist. Makhmalbaf explains that an actor can laugh and cry at any moment. I don’t know if he actually believes so or was saying this to grill the girls. It is right that an actor should be able to express his emotions easily but the girl was also right in saying that everyone has different ways of expressing emotions. She shivers when she is nervous, but does not cry. Should he have respected that? Or was it how he had planned his film and wanted the film to take only that direction?

The young girl eventually cries and then says, ““We cry when we are born, then why should we cry after that. We should laugh. Crying is weak.” It was intriguing to see that she and most people that came to audition were confused about the importance of crying. It tells a lot about the society we live in, where we believe that when a person laughs he is truly happy and become judgmental about crying.

Makhmalbaf played an important role in the film. He seemed like the backbone of the film, who played the role of both an actor and a director. It seemed like he was playing games with the candidates and was trying to bring out certain emotions from them by almost being cruel to them. When he tells the girls that they are selected and will be in the film, they said that they were happy but looked baffled and confused. This segment with the young girls raised very interesting questions that Makhmalbaf brought out through the film. Is being an artist more important than being humane? Can an artist be only an artist and not humane at the same time? Would you sacrifice your dream for someone else? And lastly, what does being an artist really mean?

Although, my most favorite part of the film was when after telling the girls they have been selected, he tells them to judge other candidates. It was interesting to see them behave exactly like how Makhmalbaf behaved with them; cruel. If we understand how it feels being the one being grilled, shouldn’t we be kind to others? Was their intention of being just as cruel as Makhmalbaf because of the position they were playing? Is it important to be hard on others when you are playing a person of power?

It is debatable if it was Makhmalbaf’s intention to bring out such important questions through this film or was it an impromptu that turned out so well. Either way, this film taught a lot about human nature and how far a person can go to follow his passion.

To some it might have seemed the film got a little repetitive and stretched but I personally felt that it was this rawness of the film that made it so impactful. It made me uncomfortable watching them struggle and Makhmalbaf grilling them to bring out emotions. The film, according to me, was not about what is right or wrong, whether makhmalbaf should have been this cruel or not. It just showed what it really is, how emotions can be uncomfortable and what passion means to different people.

Also, I found this particular picture (above) really fascinating. It is interesting to see the role reversal of these two young girls. The picture shows them in a different light and the candidates look like shadows, which I feel is a metaphor for how the girls felt when they were candidates.