Iranian Film Festival: The Red Card

Iranian Film Festival
The Red Card (Carte ghermez)
Mahnaz Afzali, 74 minutes, documentary, Persian with subtitles
Saturday, November 17, 3:15 pm
Remis Auditorium, MFA, Boston
$10, Tickets and More Info

While Iran's culture seems largely shut off from the United States or represented by the face of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the culture shares two strong similarities with that of America--celebrity worship and an attraction to bizarre crimes. The documentary The Red Card is like the OJ Simpson case, with a gender twist and an Iranian setting.

A love triangle involving soccer player Nasser Mohammad Khani turned brutal when the player's mistress murdered his wife. The alleged mistress and murderer, Shahla Jahed, testified in her own defense in a case that drew the attention of Amnesty International. Despite her clear position of vulnerability, Jahed is a dominating force. The UK's Independent writes of her control of the audience: "At the centre of it all stood Shahla, a sassy but tragic figure, one minute haranguing the judge, the next flirting with him and all the time playing to a riveted gallery. Documentary footage of her trial veers between the public vulgarity of The Jerry Springer Show and high opera of Carmen."

Image from dokfest-muenchen.de.