In one of the most captivating beginnings to a movie, a couple of people are moving through a desolate region in Iran, and one of their cars has to stop so that they can replace the wheel. One of the people inside that car changes the wheel, another is dancing to ‘Losing My Religion’, while two of the girls stay inside the vehicle. Meanwhile, in the other car a man and his fiancée are seated, with the man appearing to be on edge, evidently because this is a volatile region. All of a sudden, two men on a motorbike rush in and soon start terrorizing the group who were already frightened. To avoid spoiling the surprise, let’s just say that the next clip introduces us to Ali and Morteza, two actors whose sole pursuit lie in being hired in seemingly the most bizarre of circumstances.
The first episode opens with their struggle to maintain the theater they perform the owner wants to sell it to a contractor who wants to demolish the space since the rent has not been paid by the duo for quite some time. An offer to perform at a university acceptance party gives them a glimpse of hope and that wraps up the first episode. Episode 2 has them receiving a call from a private detective’s agency asking them to assist in solving a case in which a father suspects his daughter to be a drugs addict but things appear to be a bit more complicated than they expected.
One can easily claim that the first episode is mind-blowing. The episode has everything, starting with shocks and turns to hilarious moments and a bit of romance with Morteza’s girlfriend who works in a perfume shop. As entertaining as the plot had to be, so was the performance during the interplay of the plot with modifier factors such as directing and acting. From the start to finish, the episode fully showcased both Javidi’s direction and the acting by Ali, played by Navid Mohammadzadeh, and Morteza, portrayed by Ahmad Mehranfar, who are both amazing watching, whether the camera is rolling or not. Javidi actually toys with this last idea with several scenes in which it is not easy to tell what the pair is doing and it preserves a very interesting feeling of confusion which is quite enjoyable.
The second episode takes a more Shakespearean turn and maintains a strong element of much ado about nothing while still showcasing aspects of thrill and violence which is a stark contrast to the more comedic approach of the previous episode. Here the rhythm drops significantly along with the quality but to be fair it was always going to be difficult to maintain the quality of the previous part. The good news though is that the chemistry between the two actors is still present and despite the drama providing entertainment in one of the scenes near the end Ali makes a comment that really encapsulates how difficult an environment it is to act in the modern system.
Even though there are many issues that arise, such as the story becoming a bit clichéd due to the involvement of Morteza’s father, Javidi handles the emotional aspect of the story marvelously and keeps the viewer invested by raising questions that are interesting and worth exploring.
In these two episodes, the quality of production is comparable to that of a feature film. I must say Morteza Najafi’s cinematography is brilliant and he manages to shoot so many locations as though the settings were movie sets with great ingenuity, focusing on the exteriors and for interiors the long shots followed by some zoom shots coalesced together. The music done by Ramin Koosha also appears to be great and placed appropriately as to the cinematography due to its ability to convey the emotions that the viewers of Ali and Morteza are meant to feel, rather descriptively. Emad Khodabakhsh’s edits bring about a slightly fast pace to the first episode and that’s okay, while in the second they gave it a slow pace, which somewhat vexingly affects the flow.
It is not exactly the best idea to review an entire series based on merely 2 episodes, but I believe that if Javidi will be able to keep up the standard that he established in the first episode and repeats it for some of the rest, “The Actor” will be right up there as one of the best series to exist.
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