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WSWS : Arts Review : Film Reviews

Mohsen Makhmalbaf's Salaam Cinema: "Cinema is for everyone"

By David Walsh
25 September 1995

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, director of Salaam Cinema, is one of Iran's leading filmmakers. Born in Tehran in 1957, he left school to support his family at 15 and soon joined a militant anti-Shah group. He was arrested for his part in an attack on a police station at 17 and was not freed until the Iranian revolution of 1979. His films include Boycott (1984), The Peddler (1986) and Time of Love (1990). The latter film was not released for five years because Iranian censors objected to it on religious and sexual grounds.

Makhmalbaf has been quite outspoken on a number of issues. He believes that religion is a personal matter and he has expressed his pessimism about the direction of Iranian society. "Fifty revolutions will not change the Iranian culture," he has said. "It is a severe and cruel culture: parents punish their children, the state punishes prisoners and women do not have a fundamental role in society...."

Salaam Cinema is a documentary which records an extraordinary event. Makhmalbaf planned to make a film as part of a tribute to the one hundredth anniversary of cinema. He placed an advertisement in the newspaper in order 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.

Dozens of men and women stand in front of the camera and explain their reasons for coming. They all express a burning, sometimes desperate, desire to work in film. One young man has traveled hundreds of miles pretending to be a blind man because he thinks that will give him an edge. One young woman wants to become a movie star so she can travel to film festivals abroad and see her boyfriend, who has emigrated. Another young man thinks he looks like Paul Newman.

At moments the director is quite cruel or plays the part of being so. He demands that his auditioners produce tears in 30 seconds, otherwise they'll have to leave. He manipulates and cajoles his would-be actors, pushing them to see how far they are prepared to go to be in the cinema. 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 explains to the auditioners that he or she has just played his or her 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. This 75-minute work alone indicates that Makhmalbaf is one of the world's leading filmmakers.