The Wasteland (2020)

Lotfollah is a brick factory supervisor, acting as go-between for the workers and the boss. The boss wants to talk to the them about the shutdown of the factory. All matters now to Lotfollah is to keep Sarvar, the woman he loves, unharmed.

Director:

Ahmad Bahrami

Writer:

Ahmad Bahrami

Stars:

Touraj Alvand, Ali Bagheri, Majid Farhang

4 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Touraj Alvand
Ali Bagheri	...	Lotfollah
Majid Farhang
Mahdie Nassaj	...	Sarvar
Farrokh Nemati	...	Lotfollah's Boss

Storyline

A remote brick manufacture factory produces bricks in an ancient way. Many families with different ethnicities work in the factory and the boss seems to hold the key to solving their problems. Forty-year-old Lotfollah, who has been born on-site, is the factory supervisor and acts as go-between for the workers and the boss. Boss has Lotfollah gather all the workers in front of his office. He wants to talk to them about the shutdown of the factory. All matters now to Lotfollah is to keep Sarvar unharmed, the woman he has been in love with for a long time.

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

Ahmad Bahrami's directorial film debut.

User Reviews

Tarr and Kiarostami

By his own admission, director Ahmar Bahrani stated that he considers Abbas Kiarostami, whom he studied with, and Béla Tarr as his main models.

The Wasteland perfectly exemplifies these inspirations: the structure of the film strongly reminds of Sátántangó, as partially does the setting, inspired bu the director's childhood memories: a brick factory, symbol of a millenary tradition that is slowly fading away, strongly reminiscent of the collective featured in Sátántangó. The sense of an impending doom is equally as palpable, as tensions arise due to ethnic differences, power struggles and romantic relationships.

It is a quite unusual commistion of an iranian setting and a style that is so different from iranian cinema, yet the two work perfectly. I hope to see more of this.

Details

Official Sites:

Distributor's Website

Country:

Iran

Language:

Persian Turkish Kurdish

Release Date:

3 September 2020 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Wasteland

Filming Locations:

Iran

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1