Film Reviews

The Green Wave

• Rating:
• Director: Ali Samadi Alhadi
• Starring:
• Details: Germany / 80mins (TBC).

The Green Wave, a documentary on the run up and the fallout of Iran's 2009 'elections' where hundreds were killed and thousands injured as they protested the fixed polls. Frustration, anger and fear pumps through Ali Samadi Alhadi's documentary, which is released for one week only to coincide with the Irish Film Institute's Iranian film season, and it's not to be missed.
A democratic election was announced for 2009 with candidates Mousavi and Karroubi running against president Ahmadinejad. The democratic liberal Green Movement ensured all were at the polling stations and it looked for a long while that Ahmadinejad would lose his position. Suddenly it was announced that there is a shortage of ballot paper and then the police moved to block the entrances to the polling stations. Communication between candidates and their supporters were greatly reduced. When it is announced that Ahmadinejad won the election, thousands protested, with the police cracking down in a brutal fashion. The population waited for religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to denounce the attacks, but when he came out in support of the government, disillusionment reigned and the police took this as a green light to further attacks…
Alhadi uses interviews, archive footage, mobile phone videos, blogs, narration and animated sequences to create a kind of runaway momentum but it's the last three that really hit home. Blogs are mined from those who marched and were captured and tortured by the police and militiamen - their poetic posts narrate the documentary. These narrations are set to an animated style reminiscent of the Israeli Waltz With Bashir more than Iranian-set Persepolis; the animated sequences at first have are emotionally distancing when put next to the real footage caught on mobile phone videos, but as the documentary moves on they have a haunting effect. That said, they can also be overwrought, bordering on propaganda, with the director pulling every heart string he can. Who can blame him, though? The brutality of the police caught on mobile phones is inexcusable.
Unlike Waltz With Bashir and Persepolis, which had one controlling voice throughout, The Green Wave is a myriad of voices that speak as one. An engaging documentary and one of the best of the year.

Review by Gavin Burke