Film & Docs

Salaam Cinema

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's extraordinary documentary film about the world, about Iran, and about role-play

Cast includes
Shaghayeh Djodat
Feizola Gashghai
Maryam Keyhan
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
MH Mokhtarian
Mirhadi Tayebi
Azadeh Zanganeh
Moharram Zaynalzadeh

Mohsen Makhmalbaf - feted for his unpolished, but very affecting look at life modern-day Afghanistan, Kandehar - is one of the great modern directors of Iranian cinema. He was born to a poor family in Tehran in 1957, and during a four-year prison stretch for activites with an Islamic group - which ended with his release following the 1979 revolution - he educated himself in the arts, history and politics, emerging to become one of the country's major cultural figures (though not one always in favour with the Islamic authorities thanks to his opposition to such measures as the oppression of women).

Salaam Cinema, from 1995, is a documentary which records an extraordinary event. Makhmalbaf had planned to make a film tribute for the centenary of cinema. He placed an advert in a local newspaper intending to hire 100 actors. Five thousand people showed up, causing a near-riot. Instead of the film he was planning to make, he made a film about the audition and those who showed up for it.

Men and women stand in front of the camera and explain their sometimes desperate reasons for coming. One man feigned blindness to give him an edge; another young woman hopes movie stardom will give her the chance to travel and find the man she loves, who has emigrated. Another man simply thinks he looks like Paul Newman; perhaps he'd bought a pirate bottle of salad dressing.

Makhmalbaf plays the part of director, demanding that his auditioners produce tears in 30 seconds, otherwise they'll have to leave. He manipulates and pushes them to see how far they are prepared to go to be in the movies. The longest sequence involves two girls whom Makhmalbaf challenges at one point: would you rather be an artist or be humane? At first they accept his bullying, but then answer back: Why must we make a choice? Every serious artist must show humanity.

When 'the director' (Makhmalbaf? Makhmalbaf being a director? Makhmalbaf acting the part of a director? In this multi-level film it's hard to say) explains to the auditioners that they have, indeed, just played their part in the film, each is amazed, uncomprehending. They have very different conceptions of what a film and film-acting should be like. But Makhmalbaf explains at one point, "If cinema reflects social life, then it is for everyone." This is literally true. Including the tracking shot of the crowd lined up outside which opens the film, the director has incorporated all 5,000 people into Salaam Cinema.

In Farsi, with subtitles