The
Iranian revolution of 1979 repudiated the rule of the Shah,
in part because windfall revenues from oil went to crony
capitalists while the rest of the population lived in poverty.
Nearly twenty-five years later, the Shah is gone but poverty
remains, including the associated ill of prostitution,
and the subtext of many Iranian films is that once again
the regime is responsible. Twilight,
directed by Hasan Hedayat, is no exception. Mohammad Alavi
(played by Ezzatollah Entezami), a homicide inspector approaching
70, is unhappy. His wife died early in their marriage,
and his children are absent from his life. All that he
does in his workaholic existence (resembling BBC's Inspector
Morse) is to look at dead bodies and then to try to find
out who is responsible. Two bodies provide the latest mystery
for him, especially since one contains a woman's photograph
that lists two telephone numbers on the reverse side, and
the other has the same photograph, framed and larger, which
is posted in the dead man's photo studio. One of the two
telephone numbers is that of Alavi's home, which baffles
him. The other number is of a café that he often
frequents. According to the owner of the café, the
dead woman is Pari, who was a drug addict and informant
for a notorious gangster, Darbandi (played by Ahmad Majafi)
who in turn is pressuring her to sell her café--or
else. Although Pari's death is doubtless due to the gangster,
without proof there is no arrest. Possibly because Alavi's
cannot find a connection with the dead woman whom he does
not recognize, Alavi becomes delusionary, seeing visions
of his wife Farangis (played by Ghaziani) and two children
as well as the dead woman and many others. Through his
visions, he solves the mystery about the dead woman's identity,
but that appears to be after he dies. Yet another subtext
in the film, which figures into the unraveling of the mystery,
is about the prejudice of Moslems toward Christian Armenians
in Iran. Accordingly, the Political Film Society has nominated Twilight for
an award as best film on human rights for 2003. MH
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want to comment on this film
