Passions of Aboghoraib

The news of production and post-production of “The Lost Strait” had an incredible element, the presence of Bahram Tavakoli as its director. It is evident that Tavakoli never announced that he will work in a specific genre but his previous works and experiences had an unlikely distance from films in the genre of war, to the point that seemed like he would never accept the mantle of directing a wartime film. And at that a film with such an important and fervent subject matter which had also been neglected. Nevertheless, Tavakoli proves that an artist field whether from the point of content and meaning or from the point of medium and execution is not determined by the expectation or the anticipation of critics and audiences but it is with his might and how much he is willing to risk and this is what will determine that where and how the artist will be present. in the first look, the “The Lost Strait” is a film that belongs to the genre of war and what it transfers to the audiences is the words of its homeland’s sons’ courage on the road of preserving and protecting it on the last days of Iran-Iraq war but also due to the strategy taken from Bahram Tavakoli along with portrayal of courage, the horrifying and bitter aspects of war is also portrayed so that it shows anti-war concepts simultaneously with sacrifice for ones' homeland. In this way, one can consider that “Aboghoraib Strait” was affected and inspired by the film “Passions of Christ” (Mel Gibson, 2004). Tavakoli in his film tries to have the same method used by Mel Gibson to show the hardships that the youth and soldiers present at war suffer without a middleman and bare. After the screening of “Passions of Christ,” many criticized Mel Gibson that he wanted to affect the viewer by showing all the painful and disgusting tortures done to Christ, while he had said: I want to depict the reality of the suffering Christ had endured for his followers. The images of hands and feet that are cut, face covered in the blister and swollen bare bodies in the “The Lost Strait” have the same function as the ones in Mel Gibson’s film. Tavakoli Shows us what happened to the young men at the first lines so that they could preserve 100 meters of this soil and stop the enemy from moving forward. On the other hand, when these bare images are mixed with the action-filled but full of a mixture of light and color images done by Hamid Khozoee Abianeh, it seems like they take the viewer to the hurt of war and give them a realistic experience. As much as this film is remarkable in the area of directing and visuals and techniques, it has been unsuccessful in the area of script and characterization and it is best to say it is inadequate and insufficient. In reality, the script is not on par with its incredible director. Nevertheless, one-third of the film is suspenseful and exciting. Tolerating that much-armed conflict and the sound of tanks and the guns is a hard and yet objective experience that creates a realistic view of being present on the battlefield for the viewer. An Experience that we have seen great examples of in “Saving Private Ryan” and those of us who have lost watching these movies on the cinema’s screens, can now experience them in the form of a war that is real to us with the help of “The Lost Strait”.