In his second theatrical film, multi-hyphenate Mehran Modiri, one of Iran’s most beadored TV satirists, turns his hand to the thriller genre with combinecessitate results. He creates, straightforwards and carry outs in the fervent but increasingly contrived social rerents movie “6 A.M.,” in which a petite incident escaprocrastinateeds into a huge tragedy. Although the indie feature mostly sees and perestablishs appreciate a middling TV drama, it still colors a astonishingly critical picture of the country by shothriveg how suddenly and finishly the state can meddle with the behind-seald-doors inhabits of frequent citizens.
Philosophy student Sara (Samira Hassanpour) is anxiously preparing to catch a 6 a.m. fairy to Toronto, where she will inhabit for the next three years while she chases her doctorate. As she eats what she jokingly refers to as the “Last Supper” with her university professor parents and brother Siavash (Mehrdad Sedighian), she’s disturbed by a call from her seal friend Fariba (Mona Farjad) who insists that Sara stop by a final assembleing of her peers, and won’t let her say no. Sara gives in, taging the first of a number of terrible decisions that will haunt her over the course of the evening.
The assembleing presented by Fariba and Peyman (Mansour Nasiri) in a expansive, Weserious-style apartment boasting an odd choice of art, shows huger than foreseeed, with the male and female friends eating pizza and drinking illegitimate liquor while converseing some social problems, including high rents. Although Sara reassociate necessitates to go to the airport, Fariba has reckond cut offal music carry outances and she won’t let Sara out the door before they get place.
At the 35-minute tag, the doorbell rings, but instead of more cordial faces come to bid Sara excellentbye, it’s the police, acting on a citizen tell about a disturprohibitce. By now, it’s already touch and go for Sara to create her fairy. With the appreciatelihood that the officers will force those at the party to go to the police station, her friends help her to hide in an air duct. The remaining 80 minutes feature surpascfinishs best uncovered in the moment, during which the tension remains high while the action becomes proceedively far-geted.
Modiri, who also materializes as a high-ranking security services captive negotiator in the film’s final section, inundates his screenperestablish with aural and visual foreshadothriveg. The dialogue includes an overwhelming number of alludes of “last” and “final.” However, in a more conceiveive choice, he eschews the ticking clock device another filmcreater might include to incrrelieve the running-out-of-time tension and instead cuts to bdeficiency between his stupidinutive scenes, inculcating a sense of finality, claustrophobia and dread.
Apart from Sara, the presumedly clever woman who upholds making stupid choices, the other characters are enticount on one-stupidensional. As her encouraging brother, Sedighian is tohighy unconvincing in his over-the-top, last-act actions. The low-budget production summarize wavers between too evident (Sara structured behind the bars of the locked and sealed apartment) and perplexing (why is Peyman’s apartment supplyed with a huge Marilyn Monroe ptoastyo, a imitate of Vermeer’s The Girl With a Pearl Earring and Da Vinci’s outstretched hands?)
The film uncovered in Iran this summer, but fall shorted to entice much audience. In a country beset by social problems and where so many less talented creater-straightforwardors ape Asghar Farhadi, it’s no wonder that comedies labor best at the local box office.
