Cinema
Qeysar
قیصر
Masoud Kimiai · 1969
Synopsis
Fati, a young girl from the south of Tehran, is dishonoured by Mansour, one of the three Ab-Mangol brothers. She writes a letter to her mother and her uncle, then kills herself. Farman, her elder brother, who had sworn never to use a knife again, goes to find the three men at their shop with his bare hands. Qeysar, the younger brother, comes back from a journey to the South and finds the house in mourning.
Context
The author's second film, it was produced by Abbas Shabaviz at the Ariana Film studio and was released on 31 December 1969; the title sequence is by Abbas Kiarostami, then a graphic designer, the music by Esfandiar Monfaredzadeh. In it the author transposed to the poor districts of Tehran the directing style of the Hollywood filmmakers he admired, Fred Zinnemann among others. Behrouz Vossoughi found in it the role that made him a star, and Naser Malek-Motiei plays the elder brother. The film was followed by a series of imitations and has since been shown at the Forum des images in Paris.
Who it is for
A film in Persian of about a hundred minutes, shot in the very streets of the story. It is necessary to know that the language is that of these neighbourhoods and that the code of honour that governs everything is never explained.
Prizes and reception
The biggest success of its year, awarded at the Sepas festival for its actor and its music, and regarded, along with The Cow, as the birth certificate of the new Iranian cinema.