The Queen and I

Good idea for a documentary but "ball-less" director.

THE QUEEN AND I
A documentary by Nahid Persson Sarvestani

The idea is controversial, one one side an ex-revolutionary from Iran who became a doc director and on the other side the ex empress, the wife of Iran's Shah Farrah.

They supposedly hate each other and the director wants answers for all those years of poverty, tortures and social differences that she claims the Shah was responsible of.

They meet in the luxury apartment of the empress on exile in Paris. It starts very well but we can easily see that Farrah is controlling everything and just showing what she wants to show in front of the camera, the film becomes then as mean for her to communicate.

Synopsis:
When Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an Iranian exile, set out to make a documentary about Farrah, the wife of the shah of Iran, she expected to encounter her opposite. As a child, Persson Sarvestani had lived in dire poverty, watching Farrah’s wedding as if it were a fairy tale. As a teenager, she joined the Communist faction of Khomeini’s revolution that deposed the shah, sending him and his family volleying from country to country. When Khomeini betrayed his promise for democracy, imposing more violent measures than the shah had, Persson Sarvestani was also forced to flee. Thirty years later, she needs key questions answered and goes directly to the source. Surprisingly, Queen Farrah welcomes her as a fellow refugee from their beloved homeland, granting unprecedented access.

BUT THE REALITY of the film:

Two women around talking about life together, one (the director) trying to ask the important questions and elucidate something about those days in Iran and on the opposite Farrah, who stages her life and scares the director in such a way that the director won(t be able to ask any of those questions and film in the end will just be a shallow portray of the empress. Too much narration and doubtful director which is more than half of the movie.

Pity! I'd love to have seen more, more about real things and real discussions. What makes me mad is that because of its subject this film is going to all film festivals and being bought from all tv channels and distribution companies around the world. Easy money from a bad film, but I guess in this business audience is what we tell them to be!

Final words: If u want to see a director holding her cheek while she's thinking for 40 minutes and in the rest the amazing houses the poor exiled empress lives on go see it, if you have an hour and a half to loose go see it... for me instead no interest in this movie so forget about it!