Goodbye: Cannes Review

CANNES – Arrested together with Jafar Panahi while they were preparing a new film, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof has succeeded, under what the Cannes Film Festival refers to as “semi-clandestine conditions,” in completing Goodbye, a dark tale focusing on a young woman lawyer and openly attacking the blind repression of Iranian civil society.  A slow-moving mood piece in which women are virtually the only actors on screen, it is a powerful statement against the political regime in art film format, of chief interest to afficionados.  Still, the international wave of sympathy for Rasoulof and Panahi’s plight and general interest in first-hand information about Iran could broaden the circle of international art house audiences for this courageous and well-made work, guaranteed not to be released in its native land.