Mohsen Makhmalbaf is one of the most widely respected directors of contemporary world cinema. The Iranian director has many fans in this part of the world too, also because of the screening of his films at the International Film Festival of Kerala.
His latest feature, The President , was screened on the third day of the Kozhikode International Film Festival.
This Georgian film is about a dictator on the run. It is one of those films which you could place in different genres – drama, satire or a thriller even. What really matters is that it is great cinema.
The President is set in an unnamed country and captures your attention right from the beginning.
The president orders, over telephone, to switch off all the lights in the city, except those in the palace, to amuse his grandson, who also does the same.
Little do they realise that it would be just about the last act of fun they could have. A revolution begins.
Most of the president’s family have already flown abroad, though.
But, the president and the grandson cannot escape and they are forced to hide from a vengeful mass.
Their run is beautifully captured by Makhmalbaf and there are several poignant moments before the climax: the president seeks asylum at the residence of a woman whom he had an affair with in his youth and he has to carry on his shoulders a tortured prisoner who had murdered his son.
As the president Georgian actor Misha Gomiashvili is brilliant and he gets ample support from the little Dachi Orvelashvili, who plays his grandson.
