Hot Docs 2008

Jamshid Aminfar's paintings are haunting and inspired. With stylized bodies, almost cartoon-like faces and a sharply defined colour palette, his work contains expressive echoes of the works of Edvard Munch and Keith Haring. Using found objects for his canvases, Jamshid paints and displays his portfolio on Tehran's street corners, persisting despite constant haranguing and abuse from the police. Both Jamshid's art and circumstance can be traced to medical complexities as an infant which have left him mentally depressed and introverted. His fear, insecurities and psychological trauma are visually portrayed by the filmmaker using evocative, impressionistic animated sequences, all skillfully intertwined into the film's story. As Jamshid prepares for his first exhibition, he falls in love with a young French woman visiting Iran. His feelings are predictably unrequited, but Cyanosis deftly uses animation to show how his heartbreak can inspire renewed beginnings and new paintings.
-Brett Hendrie