In 2021, he impressed with a punchy film on drugs: back in French theaters with
Leïla et ses frères
, Saeed Roustaee paints the portrait of an Iranian society in crisis through the fate of a family on the brink of the implosion.
Presented in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in May, this river film of nearly three hours did not convince the jury.
However, an Iranian was a member of the jury: two-time Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi.
On the other hand, he seduced the press who saw in him a potential Palme d'Or and his director Saeed Roustaee who, at the height of his 32 years, embodies the new guard of Iranian cinema, had won the jury prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci).
It is in its own country that the film saw its destiny come to an abrupt end.
Read alsoOur review of
Leila and her brothers
: the Iranian clan
Censorship
At the end of June, the Iranian film authorities announced that they had banned the film
“until further notice”.
Motive alleged?
Having
"broken the rules by participating without authorization in foreign festivals (...) in Cannes and then in Munich"
.
Not frontally political, the film paints the portrait of Esmail (Saeed Poursamimi), a modest old man and father of five children, who dreams of becoming the head of the family clan.
An honorary title to which he thinks he has the right by his age.
But lo and behold, with this title come pecuniary obligations.
How to contribute to the lifestyle of the clan when its means are limited and its four sons are unemployed?
In an almost Balzacian reversal of the situation - how not to see similarities with
Eugénie Grandet
de Balzac - the spectator discovers that Esmail has, in reality, much more money than he leads his children and his wife to believe.
Then comes a moral choice for the siblings: should they steal their father's money or let him use it for his coronation, and therefore see their only chance for a future slip through their fingers?
At the heart of the film, a woman, Leïla, brilliantly played by actress Taraneh Alidoosti.
A way for the director and his actress to underline the role of
"pillar"
that women have in Iranian society, they told AFP in Cannes.
But Saeed Roustaee doesn't stop at describing a dysfunctional family.
The director of
The Law of Tehran
subtly describes an Iranian society at the end of its rope, both politically and economically.
"Red Lines"
When the AFP met him in the spring, Saeed Roustaee already had in mind a possible censorship of his film:
"In Iran, there are red lines and they are numerous"
.
"You can very easily be arrested if you don't respect these red lines,"
he added.
A censorship which is therefore exercised at two levels: the first allows the government to
“validate”
the scenario and the second to
“verify”
that the content of the film complies with its requirements.
If this is not the case, the government can request
"changes"
.
In the meantime, the film is deprived of release.
In early July, two great directors paid the price for the regime's censorship.
Winner of the 2020 Golden Bear in Berlin for his film
The Devil Does Not Exist
, Mohammad Rasoulof was arrested for co-signing an open letter in May urging security forces to
'lay down their arms'
in the face of anger over
"corruption, theft, incompetence and repression"
.
His comrade Jafar Panahi, 2015 Golden Bear for
Taxi Tehran
, who came to inquire about his fate, was later arrested and sent to Evin prison to serve a six-year sentence handed down in 2010. Faced with this sword of Damocles, has Saeed Roustaee ever thought of leaving his country?
"No,"
he retorted.
This is where we have our roots.
This is our country, this is our home”.
