Shahram Mokri, an internationally renowned figure in Iranian cinema, is one of the most ambitious and knowledgeable directors of the younger generation. He is recognized for his distinctive, thought-provoking storytelling, nonlinear experimental narratives, and signature long-take filmmaking style (Houston Festival of Films from Iran, 2021) which, however, is not present in his latest film, Careless Crime (2020).

According to the synopsis, forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the regime in Iran, protesters set fire to movie theaters as a way of opposing Western culture. Many cinemas were burned down, but in one tragic case, a theater was set on fire with four hundred people inside—most of whom were burned alive. Now, forty years later, in contemporary Iran, four individuals decide to burn down a cinema once again. Will past and present meet? (Rotten Tomatoes & Dreamlab Films).

The Cinema Rex incident is still controversial in contemporary Iranian history. New books and articles are still being published, keeping the argument over who was accountable alive. Public discourse on the topic is divided into two categories. One category puts the responsibility on the Pahlavi regime and its supporters, accusing them of setting the fire as a mechanism for triggering fear and suppressing opposition. The other category argues that revolutionary parties were responsible, which indicates that it was a deliberate act to fuel public anger against the monarchy (Houston Festival of Films from Iran, 2021). Besides these two dominant narratives, there is a third perception that holds a less popular perspective—one that attributes the disaster to “carelessness” rather than deliberate political motivation. This alternative view raises the possibility that the fire was not an intentional act but rather the result of individual recklessness or systemic incompetence. This approach is based on the ambiguous and uncertain response to this tragedy. Reports indicate that firefighters did not arrive at the scene until 30 minutes after the fire had begun. When they finally arrived, their fire trucks were empty. When they started their operations an hour later, the damage was already extensive, and hundreds of people were trapped inside the burning theater with no means of escape because the doors were also locked, as the cinema operators wanted to go home and get rest! These failures and other inconsistencies have caused suspicions that mismanagement and, generally, a sequence of carelessness—or even failure to act—may have played the main role in this tragedy.

Careless Crime (2020) tells a story about cinema itself, using one of the most controversial incidents in Iranian history—the Cinema Rex fire of 1978—as its foundation. Mokri forms a world where past and present, fiction and reality constantly merge and make it hard to distinguish between what happened or even what we hear and do not hear—with the help of his sound designer, he creates a sonic environment where dialogue fades into background noise—and influences how this historical event is reconstructed on screen (Houston Festival of Films from Iran, 2021). 

In the world of the movie, two groups of people exist: one indoors, watching Careless Crime on the screen, and the other outdoors, watching The Deer (1974), the same film that was playing when the Cinema Rex fire tragically claimed hundreds of lives. By juxtaposing these two worlds in dialogue with each other, the director dissolves the boundary between historical fact and cinematic storytelling, deliberately playing with the audience’s perception. He engages the audience in a sequence of circumstances that are based on this theory: the past is never simply the past, or as Marx famously quoted., “History always repeats itself twice: first as tragedy, then as farce." In this movie, history continuously evolves and reshapes itself through cinema (Mattia, 2020). 

A movie with this specific narrative and formal approach is bound to create controversy, not only by pointing out a political-historical incident and the theories behind it but also by emphasizing the matter of "carelessness" that still causes tragic incidents. Mokri ambitiously insists on his distinct approach to telling stories, and here again, he forces the audience to confront a question: Is history something we learn from, or are we doomed to repeat it?

References

Dreamlab Films. (n.d.). Careless Crime. Retrieved from 

https://www.dreamlabfilms.com/careless-crime/

Kimiai, M. (Director). (1974). The Deer (Gavaznha) [film]. Retrieved from 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074565/

Mattia, G. (2020). Prima come tragedia, poi come farsa. University of Florence. Retrieved from  https://flore.unifi.it/bitstream/2158/1275783/1/recensione%20CARELESS%20CRIME.pdf

Rotten Tomatoes. (n.d.). Careless Crime. Retrieved from 

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/careless_crime