Since its first exhibition, film has played a crucial role in portraying memory and the feeling of daily life. Directors utilize cinema as a tool to immortalize places, stories, and people. It is the case for Amir Aziz, who delivers a homage in the nostalgia-heavy Daroon-e Amir, or Inside Amir. It is the director’s second directorial effort, following the 2021 Two Dogs. Aziz portrays the life of Amir (Amirhossein Hosseini), a young man who is about to migrate from Iran, and lives his last days in Tehran while he prepares to move to Italy with his girlfriend, Tara (Hadis Nazari). However, Amir cannot separate from his best friend: his bicycle that takes him anywhere in the city. Thus, Inside Amir chronicles his last days in Tehran, while he questions himself about his new life.
In this sense, the film is a meditative study of Amir’s last days in his hometown. He wanders around Tehran on his bike and glimpses at the life around him, which he will leave in the next few days. Yet, the young man enjoys his last moments in Iran with a couple of his friends, the same ones he shares a flat with, Nariman (Nariman Farrokhi) and Pirouz (Pirouz Nemati). We follow the friends’ last activities as a group. They gamble and lose money, while they drink their sorrows off. The group is preparing its farewell to Amir, who is leaving behind friends, his beloved town, and crucially, his bike. Yet, the film is a meditation on their life, the current state of Iran, and how young people are leaving the country to immigrate to Europe.
Inside Amir is a film that follows a simplistic narrative thread, focusing more on the group’s experiences than on an elaborate story with the plethora of subplots and commentaries. Furthermore, most of its entirety is the camera observing Amir on his farewell lap in Tehran. His last drinking nights with the boys, the final rides throughout the busy streets of the city, and his relationship with Tara. It is a film about the complicated pains of immigrating, the difficulty of saying goodbye to the streetwalks, the asphalt, and even the blackouts. Inherently, a melancholy is heavily present in each of Amir’s bike rides. He is unsure if those are the last moments of him in those streets, corners, and neighborhoods. Surely, he says goodbye to that version of the city, as they are living organisms that shift throughout the passage of time and the interference of other individuals.
Furthermore, the film features an ongoing atmosphere of the sendoff, which rings with the uncertainty of adapting to a new country, where cultural and moral differences are present. Yet, the film has a clear unidimensionality to it. Amir loves his bike and his country, and that is most of the information about this character. Fairly, there are deviant moments of excitement throughout his farewell journey, such as the gambling matches that Nariman and Pirouz play, which earn plenty of moments. However, Amir’s melancholy showcases itself in the cinematic form; Ali Ehsani’s cinematography condenses the unhappiness of saying goodbye, framing this character in open frames, but the internal sentiment contradicts the blocking on the screen. Hence, the cinematography provides the visual setting for the character, the ongoing sentimentality, and the difficulty in letting go. Thus, the same concept is reasonable to describe the film’s idea, which encompasses the depressive thesis, preventing any other ideas from expanding throughout.
Ultimately, there is an emotional attraction to the general conception of leaving Tehran and the impact of the society on oneself. Nevertheless, this creates a repetitive and bland execution, stretching the farewell between Amir and his most precious possession: his bike. Yet, it has an honorable element of portraying and documenting Iran’s capital as a character, utilizing the Persian architecture to highlight the components of one’s life.
Still, Amir Aziz wraps himself around the concept of leaving home and the uncertainty of return, but for most of the film’s length, the director is as unsure of directions as his lead character. It is a redundant execution of a thin concept, despite its relevance in today’s discussions regarding immigration and the cultural loss of an individual during this change. Inside Amir has its highlights through the relationship of its characters; however, they do not have an expanded role in the narrative, which concentrates on Amir’s figure, and does not provide more details on the concept of imminent loss.
Finally, Inside Amir does not extend for the audience to understand the lead character properly; in the end, we only reach the surface.
Daroon-e Amir (Inside Amir) recently played at the Venice International Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Venice site for the title.
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