The Marriage of the blessed = Arusi-ye khuban [NTSC]

This is an extremely confronting and at times disturbing film exploring the psychological torture of a shell-shocked war photojournalist and his attempts to come to grips with reality on returning home from the Iran-Iraq war front. After spending some time rehabilitating in a hospital mental asylum in Tehran, Haji (Mahmud Bigham) is finally released to the care of his fiancee Mehri (Roya Nonahali) and her family. However Haji is continually haunted with images of war and daily life becomes a struggle sending Haji into a downward spiral emotionally and psychologically. Mehri, who shares Haji’s passion for photography, tries in her own way to assist Haji in his recovery surrounding him with positive images of life whilst also pushing for their wedding ceremony to take place against her family’s wishes who now want to cancel the marriage. When Haji is given back his old job at the local newspaper, both he and Mehri take to the streets of Tehran with their cameras capturing images of the homeless, the drug addicts and prostitutes, and the oppressive poverty that exists post-revolution Iran. Haji’s boss, however, is not interested in social issues and refuses to print the photos leading to a tragic sequence of events for Haji and Mehri, and Haji’s eventual breakdown. Using evocative sounds and images, Makhmalbaf (Kandahar, Gabbeh) has created an amazing piece of experimental and controversial filmmaking in “The Marriage of the blessed” which for all its political and social commentary, managed to escape the religious censorship by the Iranian regime of the time. Cast includes Mohsen Zehtab, Ebrahim Abadi, Hossein Moslemi with cinemaphotography by Ali Reza Zarindest. In Farsi with English subtitles. NOTE: Contains disturbing war images.