Watch Manuscripts Don't Burn For Free

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Maybe I'll come back someday and digress on the politics of this film, but I would just like to hail it for some fine, fine acting. It's long, but I doubt anyone could say the atmospheric shots were overdone, and few frames were wasted--they almost all reflect on something else in the film. It's like a very long, slow, convulsion, if that makes any sense.If you, like me, were disappointed by the manipulative, false, Academy award-winning _A Separation_, then restore your sense of probity with _Manuscripts Don't Burn_. I also can't believe the director hadn't had Shelley from _Glengarry Glen Ross_ in mind as he drew the protagonist here, but, if he didn't, it probably only makes both films more real and remarks an essential cultural and human sameness at play. (Both movies, don't forget, are based on real-life situations.)

Just finished seeing a screening of Manuscripts Don't Burn in Chicago at the Siskel Film Center. I couldn't recommend the film highly enough. It had a few rough spots I suppose but overall captured the tightness of the Iranian regime and how difficult it would be for an intellectual or someone with a dissenting opinion. To borrow from another film, "resistance is futile". Apparently based on a real event in history, it is not clear what is true and what is creative license, but the tension throughout was cleverly maintained. When I left the movie, I realized how grateful I am for the level of discourse we are "allowed" and the extent of alternative media, flawed though it can be at times. The acting was laudable and the writing first rate. Sadly, not enough people are likely to see this very brave film.

Mohammad Rasoulof's film was made clandestinely under highly secretive conditions. Due to its controversial and politically sensitive content, even after its release the cast and crew (bar Rasoulof) remain anonymous.The film has been made with a digital camera using non-actors. The title of the film is taken fro a sentence in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. Manuscripts... is "inspired" by real events in Iran where a series of intellectuals were murdered in what was called "Serial Killings". These murders have largely remained unresolved. The film treats these events in a very realistic and matter of fact way which makes them even more chilling and disturbing. The two main protagonists assigned with the killings go about their daily life in a very normal manner, one tending to his sick child at the hospital while the other offers prayers to God so that the child can get well soon! Rasoulof's use of camera and sound is exemplary, achieving maximum tension and sustaining it for most of the film. Highly recommended but not for the squeamish.

Saw the movie at London film festival. To be honest most the audience was made up of chin scratching, cardigan wearing liberals that i assume were looking forward to a movie about the indelible fight of man versus the system. I sat there with my 3 cans of cider and ended up falling asleep for 10-15 minutes during a protracted period of navel gazing around 25 mins into the movie. Having said that, the movie managed to accelerate towards the finish. Instead of having a liberal payoff about the enduring struggle of man it manages to show what i consider the banality of life. The exploration into the corruption that this movie claims to expose is matched by the cowardice in conviction of the intellectuals and the ability of the protagonists to commit acts unthinkable due to the pressures of the state. There are no heroes, only victims and the last 30 mins are as tough as any movie.Congratulations to the movie maker for creating an opaque, disturbing, complex and anarchic movie that refuses to provide an explanation but detail the horrors that some seem to be experiencing in Iran. The final shower scene was probably overdone for the astute members of the audience but for me it brought together the numerous face washing scenes and highlighted an inherent truth about what we as humans will endure.