Septembers of Shiraz movie review (2016)

Though based on a well-regarded bestseller by Dalia Sofer, who escaped with her family from Iran after the revolution, the film (scripted by Hanna Weg) relies on the same old simplistic images and reductive assumptions that have characterized most U.S. media coverage for the last 37 years. The well-to-do Tehrani family at the story’s center is Jewish, but very little is made of that—or of the rich culture of Persian Jews—in the drama, which devotes of its imaginative energies mainly to portraying Iranian Islamists as two-dimensional baddies.

When the tale begins, it’s the fall of 1979 and the Amin family, including dad Isaac (Brody) and mom Farnez (Hayek-Pinault), is still living a very upper-crust life at their plush home in north Tehran. We’re not told anything about their attitude toward the revolution, or that it was supported by an overwhelming majority of Iranians. The only sliver of context we’re given is a brief TV news report which indicates that the Islamists who led the revolution are now consolidating their power, “shariah law” has been imposed and many of those who supported the revolution, including students and “socialists” (meaning communists: the Tudeh party), are being dealt with harshly.

But none of this has touched the Amin family. Isaac accrued his wealth through a successful jewelry business, and he seems as well-regarded as he is successful. Then comes the fateful knock at the door, and he’s dragged off to prison by the Revolutionary Guards.

Like many others, he’s not accused of any crime but is subjected to a brutal and prolonged interrogation nonetheless. His chief tormentor, a burly man named Mohsen (Israeli actor Alon Aboutboul), allows that he was imprisoned and tortured under the Shah’s regime, but that doesn’t keep him from inflicting the same punishments on Isaac, who he quizzes about his trips to Israel. Gradually the verbal pressure turns into violent physical and mental abuse, including the obligatory scene of a mock-execution.

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