World War III ★★★
DRAMA (2022)
Directed by: Human Seyedi
InterpretationsPeople: Mohsen Tanabade, Mahsa Hejaji

“I have always wondered how long tyranny can exist in the world and who are the people who will be crushed by the powerful rulers of such plagued societies,” says the director.

Iran’s official entry for this year’s Oscars and voted best film in the Horizons section of the Venice Film Festival, Human Seyedi’s film begins with a rather unusual starting point. Shakib, a poor and homeless worker, is hired by a film industry that is making a film about Hitler and the horrors of the concentration camps. However, when a problem arises with the main character, Shakib’s resemblance to … the Fuhrer unexpectedly gives him a role, and with it increased privileges. He will use them to try and save the woman he loves, but he soon finds himself heavily involved in the film’s actors turning against him.

A parable of dictatorial regimes, a story of (doomed) love, but also a satire of itself, the Iranian film touches on several issues that it more or less succeeds in tying together into a tightly knit whole. At first, Shakib has little awareness of what is happening to him. Suddenly, he finds himself wearing Adolf’s fringed wig, signature mustache and uniform, and “executes” people with a pistol without even knowing the Nazi salute. However, he is persuasive and (mostly) pompous, so the production keeps him and takes care of him. He, for his part, is only interested in escaping a deaf-mute woman who is being pursued by a spiral of extortionists.

And somewhere there violence breaks out. “Hannah Arendt once said that everything goes well in dictatorships until there are 15 minutes left before total collapse. I have always wondered how long the tyranny and oppression in the world can be, and who are the people who will be crushed by the powerful rulers of such plagued societies. People who will fight tooth and nail to get their most basic needs – home, job and family. And everything that they end up with is nothing more than a facade – decorative and artificial, ”the director notes.

Indeed, the relationship that will develop between the protagonist and those responsible for the film is very similar to the relationship between citizens and dictatorial regimes. When it reaches the boiling point, the ensuing explosion will be extremely violent, leading to a truly shocking finale where the despair of the weak turns into ordinary paranoia, comparable to… Hitler.