Khook
Director: Mani Haghighi
Writer: Mani Haghighi
Cast: Hasan Majuni, Leila Hatami, Leili Rashidi, Parinaz Izadyar, Saber Abar, Mahnaz Afshar, Siamak Ansari, Vishka Asayesh, Payman Maadi, Biuk Mirzaei, Ali Mosaffa
Part of: /slash Filmfestival
Seen on: 24.9.2018
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Plot:
Hasan (Hasan Majuni) has really been struggling since he was banned from making movies. Not knowing what to do with himself, things at home aren’t good and he is even more frustrated that his muse, his star Shiva (Leila Hatami) is working with other directors now. But most galling of all: a serial killer has been murdering Iranian directors left and right, but Hasan appears to be perfectly save from the killer. And that really is unacceptable since Hasan knows that he is the greatest director of them all. He is determined to find out what is going on.
Khook is one of those films where the movie marathon that the /slash Filmfestival is for me came to bite me in the ass: I was just too damn tired and kept falling asleep, regretting every second I missed of the film, because the parts I did see were absolutely fantastic.
Khook is a really funny film. It works off a brilliant idea, but one that could grow tired quickly. Fortunately, it doesn’t rely too much on it: it’s just the set-up for the general tone of the film. And then the jokes keep on coming and it’s pretty damn glorious. The cockroach ballet alone was worth the price of admission if you ask me.
The cast is great, too. Hasan Majun manages to keep Hasan (the character) likeable, despite the fact that he could have easily devolved into narcissistic self-pity. But he’s both grounded and ridiculous enough to outweigh the narcissism easily. But they all had excellent comedic timing.
The film is also nicely paced, so I can say with confidence that it really isn’t the film’s fault that I fell asleep a couple of times. But I can’t speak really competently about it until I have seen it in its entirety without those sleep breaks – I hope that I will be able to find it to do just that. I look forward to (re-)discovering it and laughing again.
Summarizing: From what I saw, it is awesome.
