Presidenti / The President

პრეზიდენტი
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Country: Georgia, France, United Kingdom, Germany
Year: 2014
Duration: 1.59
Language: Georgian. English subtitles.
Category: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
    Scope.
    Print: BAC Films.
    Introduced by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, hosted by Timo Malmi.
    DCP viewed at Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF), The Big Top, Sodankylä, 15 June 2019.

Mia Öhman / MSFF: "If you have the authority, you can land a helicopter next to a herd of sheep and pick the lamb you like – and show the lamb how wonderful your country is from way up in the air. Written and directed by Iranian Mohsen Makhmalbaf, The President (2014) presents a ruler and his family enjoying a life of luxury and unlimited privileges until a revolution changes everything. The wife and daughters leave the country in haste but the former president is suddenly left alone with his grandchild, having to rely only on the help of his bodyguards."

"Finally the two fugitives must flee to the countryside and sell their parade uniforms. Soon the dethroned dictator realises that he is a wanted criminal. Thus begins a journey toward the coast, from where escape to another country is possible. The travellers disguise themselves as wandering gypsies and join a group of recently released political prisoners. The former ruler is just a grandfather and his little protégé just a grandchild of whom he must take care in any possible way. Along their journey, they see what the country has become under dictatorship and feel the hatred that oppression has caused among the people. The original inspiration for the film came from the director’s visit to the mistreated Darul Aman Palace in Kabul. The work was also influenced by revolutions of the Arab Spring in 2010–2012." (MÖ)

AA: There are no big subjects and small subjects, as Claude Chabrol has reminded us, only big and small approaches to all kinds of subjects.

Mohsen Makhmalbaf has chosen a big subject, and there is a grandeur of vision, too. The President has been inspired by the downfall and abject end of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Ghaddafi. I am also reminded of Herodotus's tale of Croesus and Leo Tolstoy's unfinished story "The Posthumous Notes of the Starets Feodor Kuzmich". And also Charles Chaplin's The Great Dictator and Sacha Baron Cohen's The Dictator.

Overnight the almighty president loses his standing, as does his grandson, and while they are escaping incognito through the country they witness in close-up the pain and demoralization caused by their authoritarian regime. Demonstrations are crushed violently, but the rebels emerge victorious. The refugees learn to wash their asses with their own hands. While shaving the ex-President a barber's hand is shaking perilously like in Chaplin's film. The country is in ruins. The industry is primitive, child labour is common, corruption is ubiquitous. Renegade soldiers are on a rampage of rape and robbery. Even a bride on her way to her wedding is fair game for them. In a brothel where they seek asylum the President meets a woman he once seduced. Everybody curses the President.

The open finale of the movie reflects Makhmalbaf's philosophy about the cycle of violence. Himself a former political prisoner and a victim of torture, he has witnessed his former prison mates turning into new tyrants. There is no end to atrocities if the cycle is not broken.

THE PRESIDENT
Ohjaaja: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Maa: Georgia, Ranska, Iso-Britannia, Saksa
Vuosi: 2014
Kesto: 1.59
Kielet: georgian kieli / tekstitys englanniksi
Alkup. nimi: The President
Kategoria: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Jos on valtaa, voi laskeutua helikopterilla lammaslauman viereen ja valita juuri sen karitsan, jonka haluaa – ja näyttää karitsalle yläilmoista, miten hieno onkaan se maa. Iranilaisen Mohsen Makhmalbafin kirjoittamassa ja ohjaamassa elokuvassa The President (2014) hallitsijan perhe nauttii ylellisestä elämästä ja rajattomista etuoikeuksista, kunnes vallankumous muuttaa kaiken. Rouva ja tyttäret poistuvat nopeasti maasta, mutta entinen presidentti jää yllättäen kaksin lapsenlapsensa kanssa ja joutuu luottamaan henkivartijoiden apuun.

Lopulta kaksikon on paettava maaseudulle ja myytävä edustusunivormunsa. Pian asemastaan syösty diktaattori tajuaa olevansa jahdattu rikollinen ja alkaa matka rannikolle, josta on mahdollista päästä vesitse toiseen maahan. Matkalaiset naamioituvat kiertäviksi mustalaisiksi ja liittyvät juuri vapautettujen poliittisten vankien joukkoon. Entinen hallitsija on vain isoisä ja hänen pieni suojattinsa vain lapsenlapsi, josta täytyy pitää huolta kaikin mahdollisin keinoin. Matkalla he näkevät, minkälaiseksi maa onmuuttunut diktatuurin alla ja kokevat sen vihan, jota riisto on kansassa aiheuttanut. Elokuvan alkuinspiraationa oli ohjaajan käynti kovia kokeneessa Darul Amanin palatsissa Kabulissa. Työhön vaikuttivat myös arabikevään vallankumoukset 2010–2012. (MÖ)