Manuscripts Don’t Burn

Screening Dates:
Wed 22 October 6:15pm

Director: Mohammad Rasoulof

In Persian with English subtitles

Like his previous works, writer-director Mohammad Rasoulof’s fifth feature exposes the mechanisms of fear that govern everyday life in Iran.

Khosrow, a lowly everyman, works as a freelance assassin in order to finance his son’s medical treatment. He is charged with locating a manuscript that details a government plot to liquidate 21 dissident writers.

The document most likely lies with a novelist who has just learnt that his latest book can only be published with whole sections redacted by the state.

The game of cat and mouse that ensues between Khosrow and his quarry is all the more harrowing for the sense of banality that it conveys. To avoid reprisals, none of Rasoulof’s admirably expressive actors is credited. But although the film was shot covertly, its production standards and narrative grip are of a thrillingly high order.

★★★★ “ITS VERY EXISTENCE SHOULD BE APPLAUDED” Total Film