"Amir Naderi is perhaps the best unknown filmmaker in the world."
Washington Post January 25, 1991
When he made "Tangsir" , Amir Naderi was only 27 and already established as a "different" film maker in Iranian cinema as Stanley Kubrick was in US. Indeed, he like Kubrick so much that in 1968, Naderi hitchhiked all the way to London and slept behinds the theater door to be among the first who have seen Kubrick's "The 2001 Odyssey"
In 1973 Naderi wrote and directed Tangsir, based on a novel by prominent Iranian writer, Sadegh Chback and a short story by Rasoul Parvizi.
By all standards of Iranian cinema, Tangsir is an "EPIC" . It was Naderi's first color wide screen, or "cinema scope" film which was not the norm in Iranian filmmaking.
By all means, Tangsir is a bold and powerful film with a radical message that " no one gives you your rights in this land because everybody in this establishment is a"thief" , the judge, the governor, the clergy ..."
"Tangsir's plot pivots on the practice, common in small towns, of Iranian peasants placing their meager savings with a consortium of men from the local wealthy, ruling class for investment. They are supposed to receive an occasional interest payment and may withdraw their money at any time. However when Zar Mohammed respectfully requests the return of his life savings from Bushehr's four prominent men the mayor, the judge, the police chief and the leading merchant they claim that his money was lost in an unfortunate trade. Zar Mohammed insists and pleads for the return of his money, but they laugh at him and throw him out. Since the men represent the law of the town, the only recourse available to Zar Mohammed is personal vengeance. In a masterful stroke, though, Naderi transforms the act of personal revenge into a universal expression of mass revenge."
Selected for the International Delhi Film Festival in India in 1974, Tangsir's leading man, Behruz Vosoughi, received the Best Leading Actor award.
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- John