Taboor - Strange goings on in Iran.... but what and when?

Taboor is a near wordless (apart from a few lines of voice-over there is no dialogue),mysterious film following an older man, wearing a foil suit under his clothing, around his city.  It is strange and disquieting, perhaps a little too mysterious and unexplained to be truly satisfying.

For the most part, the lack of dialogue works well.  In parts, it gives the film a sort of deadpan humour, with a sort of visual punchline in the long still shots and silent exchanges between the characters.  It also adds to the unsettling nature of the film, something reinforced with the occasional horror genre camera work of unnerving shots down long corridors or over stairwells.

The film does use its urban landscape very well, finding locations and shots that make the film feel like it has twisted out of this landscape and gives it a dystopian atmosphere.  The city is almost deserted, but whether it is supposed to be post-apocalyptic is uncertain, particularly when an ambulance arrives quickly and efficiently making it seem like this is still set on the edge of a functional world.

All of this does make the view experience the troubled unease of the central protagonist. He is clearly searching for something or trying to solve something wider than the odd tasks in hand but it remains unexplained.  Unfortunately,  I found the frequently weird scenarios and uncertain narrative often a bit too perplexing and disorientating to really lose myself in the film, instead becoming quite conscious of trying to understand what is going on.  This is not to say that my attention wasn't mostly held by the moving and I was frequently absorbed and overall I would say it was a worthwhile watch, if mainly for the interesting technique.  However, the person next to me was constantly fidgeting and the lack of dialogue and slow, still camera and lack of explained narrative means it probably wouldn't be for many people.