陌生人与雾 Gharibeh Va Meh (1976)

"The Stranger and the Fog" which runs for nearly two-and -a-half hours and was some years in preparation, is an epic that owes allegiance to the Japanese cinema of Kurosawa. It is set in some distant historical epoch (unfamiliar even to Iranians), and centres on intolerance in a small seaside Village. A stranger arrives in a boat. No one knows why or whence he comes. After an intial period of sucpicion, he is accepted by the villagers and marries a young widow. But there is always the feeling that he is being pursued, and the climax of the film describes a running fight between the villagers and five mysterious armed men who come in search of the stranger. The film is shot in color with an arrogant ease; the camera travels swiftly and fluently alongside running figures, and prowls unerringly through the village huts. This is a grandiose achievement, as successful in its depiction of a primitive life-style as Paradjanov's "Shadow of Our Forgotten Ancestors". It marks Bahram Beizai as one of his country's most gifted directors. (Film Guide 1975)