QUICK AND DIRTY: LIVE FROM BERLIN

A folding chair stand in the middle of an empty warehouse. A camera is pointed towards it. One by one, attractive young women come in and sit down on it. A male voice talks to them from behind the camera. It belongs to a famous Iranian director. He needs a Scheherazade for his brand new adaptation of 1001 Nights. The young women are hoping for their big breakthrough. But they will soon regret ever having stepped a foot into this studio.

1001 Frames is told entirely through these auditions. Roughly five of them are threaded together. It all starts out innocently. Simple questions about who the girls are, what acting means to them, and why they want to work with the director. He wants them to feel at ease. There’s an early moment of transgression when an actress accidentally mentions she had to send revealing pictures to an assistant in order to get the casting opportunity. The director, upon hearing this, immediately fires the assistant and profusely apologises.

The women tell stories from their past. Stories about men in power overstepping their boundaries and harassing them. The director listens and comforts them. Maybe he’s is a nice guy. Yet, this sort of intimate behaviour should be tolerated. One actress, significantly older than the rest, who won’t fall for his cheap niceties. It’s his ex-wife.

Unlike the other conversations, this one quickly turns into a shouting contest. She accuses him of stealing the idea for the film from her. And she doesn’t understand why he would invited her to the casting. After all, she had been “cancelled” at the Iranian film industry for the past 10 years because of him. As a consequence of divorcing him, following a series of rumoured affairs. He naturally denies all of it. But as his conversations with the other candidates continue, it becomes clear that he is not to be trusted.

He starts to sneak inappropriate remarks into the exchanges. And what he requests of the actors becomes very questionable. One woman is asked to act flirtatious. She challenges the director: no scene in the story requires this from her. He insists nevertheless. Another woman is asked to play a cat who approaches a mating partner. One girl refuses to partake in his power games. So he tells her that she will never makes it in the industry because she just doesn’t want it bad enough.

The “auditions” are moving in a clear direction. 1001 Frames is able to build an incredible amount of tension by repeatedly pushing the envelope. We all know where this is going. We just don’t know know how far this is going. We begin to fear that the movie may go all the way there, into full-on sexual abuse., It’s extremely uncomfortable to sir there and watch, just as powerless as the women, as the director crosses one boundary after the other.

An ironic twist cements 1001 Frames as a painfully real depiction of reality. While some actors can laugh the intense scenes off after the shooting ends, others can be deeply affected. Be prepared for a gut-wrenching conclusion.

1001 Frames just premiered in the Panorama section of the 75th Berlinale.