Pig

One of the other reviewers seems to think the director starred in the film as the main actor, and spells the director's name wrong the entire time. It prompted me to log in and review this film from the perspective of someone who actually knows Iranian cinema.

It's refreshing and funny in a way that few internationally notable Iranian films are. The movie is centered around Hasan, a movie director trying to adjust to a new reality as his fame declines while banned from working. Meanwhile, a serial killer is targeting notable film directors and beheading them, carving the word "pig" onto their foreheads. Hasan is an overgrown mama's boy and deals with his increasing irrelevancy poorly, finding himself wishing he could be the target of this serial killer so he can feel important again.

The film speaks volumes about the current role of social media in Iran and the impact it has had on culture. Justice, common opinion, even fact is decided by a society which now lives online and is obsessed with false idols.

There are comedic and tense moments throughout the film, and you find yourself both rooting for and against the protagonist. I would definitely recommend this film to someone just barely getting into Iranian cinema. Definitely a good film to help dip your toes in.

While the script is amazing, the mighty acting of Hassan Majouni as the leading role is shining in almost every moment of the movie. And you barely see such good performance from Siamak Ansari (Hope he takes it as a compliment!) If you are familiar with post-revolution Iran's history, you may be able to relate the scenario with some infamous events.

Normally I don't really mind it when a director imitates the style of another director. If you liked the original, why complain about a copy? However, Mani Haghini's 2018 film "The Pig" is highly derivative of the Cohen Brother's satires, in a way that really makes you appreciate the craft of the brothers as filmmakers. Mani seems to have watched "The Big Lebowski" 40 times, then set out to make a self-indulgent movie about being a film director in Iran. The other filmmaker make Mani seems to have been cribbing notes from is Woody Allen, in that both men often insist on starring and directing themselves in their own movies. Much as with Allen, Mani is a wildly unattractive man, who, when writing himself into his own fictional world has decided that a number of beautiful women are obsessed with him. His former leading lady, and mistress stops an movie scene she's starring in just because he's in the audience watching it be filmed. He even picks up a young, attractive stocker, who follows him around secretly filming him. Mani seems to think he has the sexual charisma of the rock stars that adorn the tacky graphic t-shirts he wears throughout the film. Having said all this, Haghini does have some skill as a visual stylist. It's just unfortunate that for every striking image that Haghini conjures up, they get buried in all the elements of the film that aren't working, most notably the choppy editing. In the end I think this is a film that is worth skipping.

Iran's cinema needs more blockbusters like this. After ''A Dragon Arrives", Mani Haghighi did not disappoint and you could obviously see the evolution in his work, the Cinematography and a very vibrant and unique color palette is the most underrated thing about the movie which is amazing, the next thing is his motive to make it a good ''dark comedy'' which he could do brilliantly and it all connected.

Overall, it was very enjoyable.

«Pig» is one of the funniest comedies I have seen in a long time, a very clever mix of satire, fantasy and social commentary, with strong roots in Iranian culture, while never losing sight of the entertainment value and cinematic craftsmanship. Above all, it is a scathing criticism of the world population's dependence on social media, especially the most brazen ones (Instagram, Twitter), to which many persons go to provide and read comments that build their social "reality": it gives them identity, it gives them "the truth", based on false facts, fake news, and contents of few words, few ideas and little depth.

Hasan Kasmai (in a formidable interpretation by Hassan Madjooni, who won the Best Actor award at Sitges) is an A filmmaker who is censored for reasons never exposed, suddenly loses his muse to a new director, and feels that he is losing his distinction in the Iranian film industry, which is more stress than anything. At the same time, Iranian filmmakers are being exterminated by a serial killer who decapitates them and engraves (with an x-act) the word "pig" on their foreheads. As Hasan says, the murdered directors are lame, but when two famous people who are close to him are beheaded, he begins to feel that the killer has not come to murder him because his glory has already passed. And to make things more delirious, an aspiring actress harasses him and uploads images to Instagram, that show features of Hasan that he would have preferred to keep for himself.

What I describe is one thing and what is seen on the screen is another, moments that range from the comic to the sublime, from fantasy to drama, including a ballet of models dressed as red cockroaches for a pesticide commercial that Hasan directs, a police chief who invites him to eat melon while interrogating him, a rock number that Hasan (fan of Black Sabbath and AC/DC) sings accompanied by a band of women in the costumes of the red cockroaches, a sumptuous party, the shooting of an epic film that is a mix between Pasolini and Oliver Stone, Hasan's mother armed with an old rifle and determined to protect her son, plus an influencer who declares the war on Hasan, accusing him of murder.

If you (like me before this) have never seen an Iranian comedy and associate Iranian cinema with Kiarostami, films of children sharing slippers or flying kites, this is a big surprise, and to be fair, a wonderful surprise. Watch it. You will enjoy it and it will also make you think.