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Iran’s ‘Man, a Bear’ Finds Humor, Heart

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Once past an awkward start, Masoud Jafari Jozani’s “A Man, a Bear” emerges as a courageous satirical allegory on authoritarianism and hardship in contemporary Iran. To no one’s surprise, it received no official support and no promotion and suffered accordingly on its release in Iran in 1993. Yet, along with its outspokenness, “A Man, a Bear” is also a warm, endearing and often very funny film.

Jozani’s story begins tediously and confusingly in a small rural community but kicks in when its hero (Hamid Jebeli), a deaf mute, and his trained bear wind up on an old, narrow street in Tehran. The street’s many children are instantly delighted by the new arrivals, for the youngsters have no zoo nearby or even a playground, and their elders are also diverted by the adorable animal’s antics.

Of course, there’s always a spoilsport on hand. In this instance he’s a rich, pompous older man, Kamali (Mohammad Ali Keshavarz), who’s just installed his latest young concubine in a new house at the end of the block and who objects to all the noise and hubbub created by the performing bear. What’s more, one of the street’s key merchants (Mirsalah Hosseini) backs him.

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Although the bear remains muzzled and really does nothing more harmful than get into the hostile merchant’s honey, she inevitably will provoke a call to the cops. At this point, the formidable “Aunt” Khorasooni (Hamideh Kherabadi), the neighborhood matriarch, leads a resistance to the local police sergeant (Daruish Moaddabian), a decent man trying to do his job fairly.

Clearly, Aunt Khorasooni, as an aging widow, feels she has nothing to lose in speaking out for self-determination and for kindness. “A heart without compassion is not worth beating,” she declares.

One has the feeling that the key veteran actors in the film, Kheyrabadi especially, are much loved by their audiences. Kheyrabadi and Keshavarz are both masters of technique, drawing upon lifetimes of experience to come up effortlessly with just the right expressions and gestures.

The gaunt Jebeli makes the bear’s master a kind of holy fool who can only utter a single expression, “Lamlali,” by which both he and his bear are known and which in Farsi means “I cannot say it” or “I don’t want to say it” or simply “Leave me alone.” This beguiling little movie is a winner, even if it was a loser at Iran’s box offices.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: Although serious in its implications, the film is also a family entertainment.

‘A Bear, A Man’

(Yek Mard, Yek Khers)

Hamid Jebeli: Lamlali

Hamideh Kheyrabadi: Aunt Khorasooni

Mohammad Ali Keshavarz: Kamali

Daruish Moaddabian: Sgt. Ahmadi

A Dena Films presentation of a Jozan Film Co. Ltd. Writer-director Masoud Jafari Jozani Cinematographer Aziz Saati. Editor Davoud Yusefian. Music Fereydon Shahbazian. Set designer Masoud Sadeghian. Bear trainer Jack Batman. In Farsi with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

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* Exclusively at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.

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