If you wish discover one of the most important faces of Modern Iran fine arts, this is the documentary that will learn you about Bahman Mohassess: the great sculptor/painter who lived and worked most of his life in Roma rather than in his motherland.
Mitra Farahani succeeded to turn her documentary to an attractive fiction, where chapter after chapter the spectator will familiarize with the personage. The director narrates briefly the essential points from personal life and professional career of the artist. She had not used expensive equipment and cameras, but very discreetly she entered in the privacy of the artist and broke the solitude of the old man in a pleasant way. Thanks to this confidence between the cineaste and her subject, Mohassess plays himself very naturally just like an actor; as a result the last days of his life become a touching tale in front of Farahani's camera.
The resemblance with the short story of Balzac "The unknown masterpiece" is to a certain extent comparable, as Mohassess destroyed several of his works in his life and like the Master Frenhofer dies before finishing his last chef d'oeuvre. He left the show at the right moment, so his death becomes dramatically his ultimate masterwork.
Hypothetically with a bit of chance and obviously by better management of his relationships with the international artistic Medias/ art galleries/ collectors/etc. Mohassess could have become as famous as his fellows such as Giacometti, but he preferred to remain loyal to his own style: individualist but united with human cause, philosophically pessimistic but joyful and droll in daily life, a tremendously creative artist but in an auto-destruction approach like a rebel intellectual. Undoubtedly the sad and regrettable fact is to observe how both Iranian Diaspora and domestic society were terribly indifferent during decades towards such a genius!
