Director: Mohammad Rasoulof | Iran | Fiction | 2013 | 125 mins
Film source: Kino Lorber
Sponsor: UVM Film & Television Studies Program
Clandestinely produced in disavowal of a 20-year filmmaking ban passed down by the Iranian authorities, Manuscripts Don’t Burn is one of the most daring and politically provocative films to emerge from Iran. Drawing from the true story of the government’s attempted 1995 murder of several prominent writers and intellectuals, Rasoulof imagines a repressive regime so pervasive that even the morally righteous are subsumed or cast aside. A masterwork of understatement, a lacerating and slow-burning thriller filmed in a frigid palate of blues and greys, the film’s focus shifts between various older journalists—labeled merely “intellectuals” by the government authorities tracking them down—and the conflicted hitman forced to torture and murder them. Manuscripts Don’t Burn brings a whole new level of clarity and audacity to Mohommad Rasoulof’s already laudable career (The White Meadows; Goodbye). Like fellow filmmaker Jafar Panahi (This is Not a Film), Rasoulof was arrested, tried on trumped-up charges and given a draconian prison sentence that was never implemented. Rasoulof currently resides in Europe, while the rest of the cast and crew are not named in any credits associated with the production for the sake of their safety.