Ghazieh-e shekl-e avval, ghazie-e shekl-e dovvom / First Case, Second Case (2018 restoration MK2)

Ghazieh-e shekl-e avval, ghazie-e shekl-e dovvom / First Case, Second Case. Teaching the anatomy of the ear. Photo: Il Cinema Ritrovato.

قضیه شکل اول، شکل دوم / Qazieh-e shekl-e avval... shekl-e dovvom / Primo caso, secondo caso.
    Director: Abbas Kiarostami. Year: 1979. Country: Iran. Scen.: Abbas Kiarostami. F.: Houshang Baharlou. M.: Abbas Kiarostami.
    Int.: Mehdi Azadbakht, Mohammadreza Barati, Hedayat Matin Daftari, Nader Ebrahimi, Gholamreza Emami, Mahmoud Enayat, Ezzatolah Entezami, Ali Mousavi Garmaroudi, Ali Golzadeh Ghafouri, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh.
    DCP. D.: 53’.
    Not released in Finland.
    Restored by MK2 (2018).
    Copy from MK2.
    Farsi version with English subtitles.
    Recovered & Restored.
    Introduce Massoumeh Lahidji, hosted by Gian-Luca Farinelli.
    Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, e-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti Londra, 26 June 2019.

Ehsan Khoshbakht (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "This banned and rarely seen pseudo-documentary by Kiarostami is a testimony to his seldom acknowledged political shrewdness and his objective, complex perspective on the tumultuous events of the late 1970s in Iran, culminating in the revolution. Remarkably, he achieved this without leaving his comfort zone, the classroom setting, and by staying faithful to his inquiring style, with its subtle, imaginative manipulation of recorded reality. Here, he also introduced the interview format into his body of work, putting his finger on the pulse of Iranian society by collaging conflicting viewpoints."

"The premise is incredibly simple, almost a variation on his 1975 short Two Solutions for One Problem. A teacher is seen drawing a section of an ear on the blackboard (hence the theme of listening / surveillance). A student bangs his pen on the desk every time the teacher’s back is turned to the classroom. The teacher asks the students to name the culprit. They refuse. The teacher expels seven of the pupils, warning them that they will only be allowed back if they name the guilty party. The film is interrupted by Kiarostami showing footage of this incident to the parents of the students and some politicians, artists, writers – even the leaders of Jewish and Christian communities – asking them whether the students should stick together or name the guilty party."

"The shoot began shortly before the revolution and continued until its aftermath, giving Kiarostami the idea to include the opinions of some members of the new regime. This brought new depth to the film, turning it into a fresh discourse on the key dilemmas of the Iranian revolution: betrayal or camaraderie; moral values or group integrity; human rights or ideological goals? The fate of the interviewees should tell us how right Kiarostami was in his usual wisdom and profound simplicity, as some of them were soon after imprisoned because of their political ideas, and at least one was executed." Ehsan Khoshbakht

AA: A stark, profound and intense cinematic philosophy lesson in ethics by Abbas Kiarostami for Kanun parvaresh fekri.

A student disturbs the class. Should schoolmates become informers?
Parents are interviewed.
Prominent Iranians representing a wide range of views are interviewed.

Although the film consists largely of talking heads, it is a suspense thriller.
Like Where Is the Friend's House?, it is a thriller with a gravity of life and death.
It is a thriller in which human dignity is at stake.

Only Iranians can understand the political significance of the famous people in the interviews.

Regarding the annoying noise that sets the story in motion, it evokes a memory from my own school days. In those days we were no better than our Iranian friends 15 years later.
Our way of annoying the teacher was by knocking the drum rhythm of the novelty hit "Let's Go" (1964) of the Danish rock'n'roll band Sir Henry and his Butlers.

Although the concept of the cinematography is simplicity itself, the close-ups are very expressive, filmed in vibrant colour.

The Kiarostami Foundation has performed the digital transfer in 4K from the 16 mm original, and the DCP has been created at 2K.

The digital transfer has been conducted in good taste, retaining a fresh sense of grain and lively colour.

ENGLISH WIKIPEDIA:

The film starts with this scenario; A teacher is drawing a diagram of an ear on the chalkboard with his back to the class; he is interrupted several times by the sound of a pen banging rhythmically against a desk. Each time he turns around, the noise stops, only to resume again. Finally, unable to pick out the culprit, the teacher tells the seven boys sitting in the corner of the room to leave the class. The students are given an ultimatum, which becomes the basis of the film. Kiarostami showed this film to the Shah's educational experts and filmed their opinions in 1979. Shooting was nearly complete when, on February 1, Ayatollah Khomeini arrived in Tehran from exile and 10 days later declared an Islamic republic. In 1981 then Kiarostami set about remaking the film, junking the commentaries and changing its structure. He decided he would make the film into a dramatized dilemma. First Case involved pupils refusing to name the guilty party, in Second Case one of the pupils names the culprit and is allowed to return to the classroom. All of the new observers, including the new education minister and members of political parties (Communist, Democratic National Front) were filmed commenting on the two cases. The film was banned after its premier and disappeared from view for decades until June 2009 when it reappeared and became widely distributed on the web.

First Case, Second Case (with English subtitles) - over 30 years have passed since the film's release and, as a result, Iranian copyright law has rendered it in the public domain.