Hot Docs 2008

In this beautiful and sometimes mischievous homage to the weird and wonderful city of Tehran, the curious contradictions of Iranian history are playfully exposed. Director Massoud Bakhshi constructs a century-spanning postmodern portrait of a metropolis turning megalopolis, increasingly an unsustainable urban mess of pollution, inadequate infrastructure and overcrowding. Using an energetic mix of archival footage, unconventional photography and sometimes asynchronous music and sound, Bakhshi considers the aesthetic and cultural values that have shaped old and new Tehran. His project openly flouts the conventions of documentary essays, and purposefully embraces moments of nonsense and incongruity. The chaotic impulse of the film's construction is a fitting parallel to the development of a city that has haphazardly survived oppressors, wars and internal revolutions. Ironically matching style and subject matter, Bakhshi narrates that it's impossible for him to organize and save his movie from travesty-a critical sentiment he clearly projects onto Tehran, too.
-Brett Hendrie