Part of Edinburgh Iranian Festival
Malaria concerns the relationship between young couple Hanna (Saghar Ghanaat) and Murry (Saed Soheili), who have eloped to escape the wrath of Hanna’s abusive father. After being turned away by multiple establishments for being an unmarried couple, Hanna and Murry seek refuge at the house of Azi (Azarakhsh Farahani), an aspiring rock musician whose band the couple travels with on their journey to live together. Cinematographer Hooman Behmanesh makes use of iPhone cameras to record many key moments in Hanna and Murry’s journey, the most visually notable example being where Hanna is hiding in a box in Azi’s van whilst he tries to evade her pursuing father and brother.
The entire sequence is filmed from Hanna’s perspective, with the entire frame surrounded in darkness with the exception of a horizontal jagged shaft of light in the centre, with the only visual spatial cues provided by dialogue, namely Azi’s intense dialogue with Hanna’s father and brother. This stylistic decision is not only visually unique but also underlines the desperation of Hanna’s situation as well as representing the constrictive nature of the social restrictions she faces as a young woman in Iran. This last issue is further reflected in the various obstacles that Hanna and Murry have to face throughout the film. The couple are refused a hotel room because as an unmarried couple they are not allowed to travel together or to share the same room without authorisation, forcing them to sleep in a factory and later an abandoned house.
These repressive societal factors, as well as Hanna’s own familial pressures, are underlined in her climactic speech delivered to her iPhone camera, which when placed within a wider context serves as a tragic reflection of the restrictions placed on women in contemporary Iranian society. Shahbazi combines this use of smartphone technology with a semi-improvisational style to create a sense of intimacy that allows for a more naturalistic sense of chemistry between the main actors, enabling Hanna and Murry’s relationship to feel more realistic compared with a more traditional scripted approach. However, this more freeform approach results in the film’s narrative occasionally becoming sidetracked, with sequences involving the characters joining in street celebrations, as well as a movie premiere that Azi tries to gatecrash, undermining the urgency of the couple’s situation and slowing down the pace of the film.
Despite this issue, Malaria serves as a technologically innovative interpretation of a situation provoked by traditional religious sensibilities.