Friday's Soldiers

Veteran Iranian filmmaker Massoud Kimiaie wrote and directed this almost parable-like story about four soldiers who go home to Tehran while on military furlough. Prior to leaving, however, two of the soldiers (Farzaneh Arastoo and Pejman Bazeghi) end up in a brutal fistfight in their barracks. "It was the beginning of a friendship," Arastoo's character, Reza, tells their superior officer, and while he's being sarcastic, he's more right than he knows. Stuck with each other on their break, the two head to Reza's family home only to find Reza's mother has just died, his sister is headed for execution for killing her husband, and his niece is traumatized after being rescued from slavery. Meanwhile, Bazeghi's character reconnects with a sister whose sanity is marginal at best. Before this night is over, the two men will have bonded and their compatriots on this trip will have gone through some changes as well. Unfortunately, much of the high drama in Friday's Soldiers comes across as weepy and bathetic, and the story's structure is often obscure and alienating. In fact, the film's best scene may be the opening credits sequence, a montage of marching soldiers directed not by Kimiaie but rather Abbas Kiarostami, the most important figure in contemporary Iranian cinema. An optional purchase. (T. Keogh)