‘For Rana’: Busan Review

Dir. Iman Yazdi. Iran. 2024. 87mins

Aref (Hamed Behdad), a stunt motorcyclist in an Iranian circus, and his spouse (Pantea Panahiha), who works in an industrial laundry, aren’t rich. However they’ve sufficient to get by and to create a loving house for his or her seven-year-old daughter Rana (Tasnif Hosseni). Then the little lady’s coronary heart illness immediately deteriorates, and the mother and father are informed that she wants a transplant as a matter of urgency – and the unscrupulous kin of a possible donor prey on their desperation. The characteristic debut from Iman Yazdi, For Rana is a bluntly-plotted melodrama that clearly telegraphs its tragic climax throughout the opening 10 minutes. It’s elevated, nonetheless, by the standard of the performances, and the evocatively down-at-heel circus backdrop.

Bluntly-plotted melodrama

Yazdi minimize his tooth as a brief movie director – his earlier work consists of Homeless (2014), First Exit (2012), and After The Sport (2011) – and he additionally directed the Persian language TV sequence Soda in 2022. For Rana is a cultured manufacturing, with Roozbeh Rayga’s layered cinematography a selected stand out. The image may generate curiosity on the competition circuit, the place audiences could recognise Panahiha and Behdad from, respectively, the Cannes break-out Hit The Street and the Rotterdam prize-winner The Previous Bachelor. Nonetheless, the marginally heavy-handed storytelling could restrict the movie’s potential enchantment.

The director’s sturdy visible sense is obvious from the outset, with a gap that introduces us to Aref at his workplace: a bolstered metallic sphere in the midst of a circus ring. Whereas the viewers ecstatically chants his identify, Araf pulls on his helmet and straddles his neon-lit bike, using it in a dizzying show of looping and circling contained in the construction. It appears to be like terrific, however it additionally serves as a neat visible metaphor for the cage of debt wherein so most of the characters discover themselves. Regardless of how onerous or quick Aref rides, he can by no means fairly escape.

Aref’s monetary scenario just isn’t nice, however his issues pale into insignificance subsequent to these of his buddy and work colleague Soroush (Amin Asadi), whose father is in jail for money owed. Soroush’s desperation is such that his judgement and recommendation are clouded by self-interest when he urges Aref to take a sponsorship deal brokered by the circus’s corrupt proprietor (he stands to make a minimize of the income). At first, Aref roundly rejects the deal however, as soon as the seriousness of his daughter’s sickness turns into clear, he finds that he’s not ready to take an ethical stance.

The medical professionals are sympathetic to the household’s plight however stress that Rana just isn’t on the prime of the transplant listing. Consequently, the onus of duty to find and negotiate an acceptable donor falls on Aref and his spouse. However the one candidate is an aged man in a coma, whose new spouse and grownup son are competing to wring as a lot money as potential from the person’s property earlier than the life assist is turned off.

The ticking clock of Rana’s medical emergency is mirrored within the countdown to Aref’s subsequent motorbike stunt – he’s planning an try at a dangerous record-breaking leap. In the meantime, a really pointed scene exhibits a pair of insurance coverage brokers agreeing to supply one-off cowl for the occasion. “Let’s hope you by no means have to make use of it,” feedback Soroush as soon as the insurance coverage coverage has been finalised, just about sealing the fates of all concerned within the story.