The Lizard (2004)
"Marmoulak" (original title)

Reza is a petty thief who escapes jail by posing as a mullah. When he has to stay in disguise longer than he expected, he accidentally becomes the revered leader of a small-town mosque, ... See full summary »

Director:

Kamal Tabrizi

Writer:

Peyman Ghassemkhani

Stars:

Parviz Parastui, Bahram Ibrahimi, Shahrokh Foroutanian

4 wins.

Cast

Credited cast:
Parviz Parastui	...	Reza Marmoulak
Bahram Ibrahimi
Shahrokh Foroutanian	...	Hajji Reza Ahmadi
Farideh Sepah Mansour	...	Motazedi's Mother
Maedeh Tahmasebi	...	Ozra
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ali Abedini
Rana Azadvar	...	Fayezeh
Bahram Ebrahimi	...	Mojaver
Cyrus Hemati	...	Mojtaba
Mehran Rajabi	...	Shojaei
Soheyla Razavi	...	Fayezeh's Mother
Sepehr Rezanoor	...	The boy
Reza Saeedi	...	Atef
Naqi Seif-Jamali	...	Mr. Fazli
Hossein Soleimani	...	Gholamali

Storyline

Reza is a petty thief who escapes jail by posing as a mullah. When he has to stay in disguise longer than he expected, he accidentally becomes the revered leader of a small-town mosque, bringing people flooding in with his on the hoof sermons featuring sexual innuendo and references to 'brother' Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

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Plot Keywords:

mosque | mullah | disguise | prison escape | nickname as title | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

Iran

Language:

Persian

Release Date:

24 February 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Lizard

Company Credits

Production Co:

Faradis

Technical Specs

Runtime:

115 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Broke Iranian box-office record although it was only in theaters for two weeks.

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Quotes

Reza Marmoulak: There is no one in this world who doesn't have a path to reach God

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Connections

Remake of We're No Angels (1989)

User Reviews

One of the best Iranian movies, but for an Iranian audience

Summary: One of the best Iranian movies ever made, but for an Iranian audience only.

Marmoulak is a political/social satire, but its comedy is subtle and better understood by an Iranian audience. I'd like to compare it to "Blazing Saddles", often cited by American movie watchers as one of the funniest movies ever made, while a non-American audience is only mildly amused by it. Cultural differences play a big role.

Marmoulak's power of humor lies in the comments, words, situations and overall behaviour of the characters, which are not always understandable to the non-Iranian crowd. For instance, many of the seemingly innocent comments in the movie are copied or distorted very cleverly from the political/religious slogans, speeches and actions of Iran's religious clergy. Those parts are easily identifiable and enjoyable by Iranians, while non-Iranians may not quite understand the subtlety of it.

That said, the movie is powerful, enjoyable and with brilliant acting. The story is quite simple and has been repeated in many forms before. A jailed thief seizes upon a chance encounter to escape from prison using the stolen clothes of a clergyman. With Prison's warden (depicted as a despotic maniac) after him, he escapes to a border village where the local people think he has been sent for preaching in their mosque. The rest of the movie depicts the thief's efforts to find a way across the border, while playing the role of an unconventional preachers who actually plays a huge role in the life of the villagers.

Parviz Parastooi plays the lead role in a breathtakingly magnificent way, and this fact is again only obvious to an Iranian audience who know exactly the class of people he is trying to portrait. The movie has a good pace; in contrast with other well known Iranian movies such as Kiarostami's and Panahi's works that are typically very slow. Dialogues are extremely clever.

Given 9 out of 10 by this reviewer.