An analysis of the first episode of “The Fall”/ Say hello to ISIS
The most important feature in the first part of the “Falling” series is the choice of an inflammatory and challenging subject, the seeds of which were sown in the beginning, and in the continuation of the work, the formation or lack of formation of the main suspense in the story, how to deal with it in The following episodes will return.
Charso Press: It is no secret that there was and still is a kind of impatience and conservatism in the selection of subjects and story ideas in the writing and production of Iranian films and series. Part of this problem is related to the restrictions and audits and strictness surrounding dealing with the issues, which, well, in this part of the story, the writers and directors cannot be blamed and the problem is from somewhere else, but in the heart of this space, they are not lacking. Subjects and ideas that need to be addressed both from a historical, political and national point of view, as well as from a cinematic point of view, are attractive and provide good story and visual material to filmmakers.
Laziness, laziness and impatience, however, make the writer and director less likely to face the difficulties of dealing with them, rather than creating a work with a new color and tone. A work that has both an economic function and enriches the audience and also brings favorable artistic achievements for the creator of the work. Why shouldn’t the story surrounding the formation of ISIS and the tragedies and tragedies that took place around the rise and rise of this group in our very own ears, be used as a basis for making a series of visual works? Why was this fascinating subject addressed in the direction of national interests and at the same time in the direction of economic prosperity and the production of video content?
I made this introduction in order to emphasize that the mere introduction of this attractive and certainly risky subject by a director is curious in itself and will attract many eyes towards him. The bottom line is that Sajjad Pahlavanzadeh has taken a high risk in his first experience as a director and has rightly appeared bold, but does this boldness in itself lead to the desired result?
Naturally, we need more time to make a judgment about this, and after the first few episodes, we can make more informed judgments. Let’s not forget that the courage to spend and not to be conservative is a valuable thing and definitely worthy of attention. The issue of the series is related to the story of poverty and deprivation in the Kurdish areas of the west of the country, the issue of Kolbari and the sufferings and injuries surrounding it, and more importantly, the story of the presence of some Iranians in the group of ISIS terrorists. Subjects and points that are more and more stuck these days. Specifically, dealing with the economic problems of the border dwellers in the west of the country and the undeniable pains they endure to make a living, and one of the prominent manifestations of that is doing business through coulbari, that is by putting their lives at risk.
The juxtaposition of these three feverish headlines mentioned above alone is worthy of consideration and attention, but what kind of attention is it? The most important point that is important about the story line of the fall series and the way of paying and expanding it in the next episodes, can determine the fate of the series, is the choice of the perspective of the script in the way of explaining the reasons for “Zhakan” joining the ISIS group. Is this trend only rooted in economic problems? Were there intellectual, cultural, political and religious reasons? Is it a matter of brainwashing?
In the first part, the most emphasis is on economic problems and poverty and scarcity, and the main reason for this trend has been introduced so far, but why should we focus on this issue? For a simple reason. Aisan and Jakan are in love, after a long and even seemingly boring introduction and drawing the sensory and emotional space between them, suddenly the script tries to introduce the audience to the geography of Syria and Raqqa and move to the heart of the areas under the control of the forces. ISIS makes its audience worry about the fate of the female character in its story.
The provision considered is clear. A young woman’s love for her husband is in danger of being destroyed and abused. This is where joining ISIS and the subsequent events, apart from the intellectual, political and historical sensitivities that it entails for us Iranians, becomes very important in terms of storytelling and screenwriting, because the way of explaining this presence and image that is from the world ISIS is depicted, it can make the audience worry about the future of Aisan and Jakan, or on the contrary, the audience will continue to feel disillusioned.
Therefore, it is the way of storytelling and of course the imagery through the way of directing, filming, set and costume design and of course the way of guiding the actors and their performance that can inject blood into the veins of the series and make the world of Daesh as an unknown world to the audience. Access to attractiveness in the series will become a trump card for Pahlavanzadeh or it will fail and burn the very important and attractive opportunity to deal with such a dense and attractive subject.
I am very curious to see how successful Pahlavanzadeh, who is a capable editor and has now appeared as a director, will be in removing too many visuals and speaking less and avoiding long words in the series. The Chinese introduction of the story in the first part did not meet the expectations of a director with editing experience, and this Chinese introduction could have been much more concise and short. Of course, part of this feature is related to the text of the script, which should have been thought of before the start of recording. This issue is one of the points that I would like to observe in the next episodes of the search and the result of integrating Pahlavanzadeh’s editing experience as the director of the series.
Apart from this discussion, it can be said that perhaps, in addition to dealing with the world of ISIS, one of the most important trump cards of the Fall series, which was written by a female screenwriter, and one of its main characters is a girl who is on the verge of becoming a mother and starting A new chapter in his life is suddenly thrown into a scary world, so that he can make good use of the contrast between the strongly misogynistic and masculine world of ISIS and the feminine world of the main character of the story, and through his dominant view of the feminine world Due to the writing of the author of the series, this contrast and confrontation lead to the creation of attractive and suspenseful situations.
All this is speculation and the only solution to judge the correctness or incorrectness of these judgments is to allow time so that we can have a deeper analysis about this work based on the examples after showing the first few episodes of the series. In the first step, the series has created a sense of curiosity in the author of this text to follow the results of Sajjad Pahlavanzadeh’s work.
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