«Pig (khook): you'll like it!

Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) - Thierry Fivaz

Life is unfair! While his fellow filmmakers are being beheaded and are lucky enough to make the headlines, no one seems to pay the slightest attention to Hasan Kasmai, a filmmaker himself.

Slumped over on his bed, Hasan Kasmai (Hasan Majuni) has a heavy heart. Fate seems to be working against him. Why isn't the serial killer and severed head enthusiast interested in him? The great Hasan Kasmai, unquestionably the most gifted Iranian director of his generation! It's true that, for some time now, Hasan has been out of the limelight, probably because his films have been a little too militant. blacklisted and is temporarily barred from practicing his craft. And it's not by making ads for products as glamorous as insecticide sprays that Hasan will be able to (re)reveal his creative genius - but still!

Fortunately, in such a situation, what better remedy than the arms of a mother to console oneself? Hasan's mother lives with him, and the old woman promises: he too will soon have his head cut off; the killer has simply saved the best for last. Phew! How comforting those words are.

#thenetworkisnotbeautiful

In a nutshell, and without giving away the plot, that's the crazy atmosphere that reigns in Pig (Khook) of Mani Haghighi who, like his alter ego Hasan Kasmai is also Iranian. For his eighth feature, the director delivers a comic, fast-paced and, frankly, likeable film. Disappointed lover and whiner to a fault, his shaggy beard and scraggly hair make Hasan Kasmai look like a teddy bear, a bit shabby, admittedly, but very endearing. Like his entire family, moreover, who devote themselves body and soul to him and his work, and surprise us with their simplicity and benevolence.

However, it would be wrong to reduce Pig (Khook) to a slightly madcap black comedy. For, amusing as it is, Mani Haghighi also presents us with a distorting mirror, as evidenced by the numerous mise en abîme, or even the stretch of water on which, in a lion-headed boat, Hasan is arrested. A mirror that reflects a world where money takes precedence over ideas, where social networks take the place of judges, where the value of an individual is reduced to the number of his or her "friends". followers. But then, what's the difference with our world? Perhaps it's the fact that in the latter, unfortunately, Hasan Kasmai doesn't exist.

Pig (Khook) to be (re)seen as part of the festival, on Thursday July 12 at the Cinéma des Arcades: you will like!

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Write to the author: thierry.fivaz@leregardlibre.com

Credit photo: © NIFFF