BERLINALE 2020 - Pari

70th BERLINALE FILM FESTIVAL © Heretic

Siamak Etemadi's Pari is a powerfully rich and often dark and harrowing portrayal of the depth of family and engulfing love of mother and son. 

 Etemadi's film throughout is incredibly profound and hard-hitting to behold. Pari is utterly tragic at every turn and intensely brutal with its harrowing real-life evocation of trauma. The feeling and thematic weight of isolation and loss are personified ten-fold with a restraint and voyeuristic approach on the filmmaking front. The cinematography by Claudio Bolivar is intimate and often claustrophobic ramping up the loss of freedom and is a lotion within the context of the plot and amplifies the tension and atmosphere of the situation unfolding. 

The production design by Wilbert Van Dorp equally adds tremendous layers to Pari in an eerie and bleak examination of the political and societal forefront of the world, and specifically, Athens falling apart around these characters amid their own existential and personal crisis. A boiling pot of thematic and internal emotion that can often drown the film in a tremendously dark feature.

Pari balances such with the love and strength of the titular character played by the astonishing Melika Foroutan who is nothing short of perfection. Foroutan, throughout, perfectly showcases the trauma and horror of a foreigner in a distant land in small but devastating nuances, courtesy of the screenplay from writer-director Siamak Etemadi and the talent of Foroutan herself. The screenplay, while engulfed in thematic weight, is slim on verbal confrontation and discussion. An element that reinforces and heightens the tension and atmosphere of the plot but therefore allows Foroutan the backbone of crafting her role solely through character and visually cues, of which the actress convicts effortlessly. 

Pari is a dark and traumatic modern tragedy on all fronts, but one that showcases a glimmer of hope against racial and gender pressures, with a stunning central performance from Melika Foroutan that speaks volumes through visuals. Pari is a film arranged to the brim with weight and layers. Examining race, gender and political starvation yet director Siamak Etemadi expertly balances each tone with gravitas and impact, never drowning each element out and given a poignant effect with tremendous results.