My first film by the Iranian great, this is one of his works after he shifted to German language. And its a harrowing film. It is more than 3 hours long and for its entire duration it is a devastating, bleak, crushing movie. No wonder this has been compared to Salo, but there is no physical violence here. The story is about a brothel run by a ruthless, cruel and disturbed Manfred Zapatka and the five girls under him who have nowhere to go, who work with him sacrificing themselves every day just for a distant future, that too getting increasingly lost by the day. It lacks the physical force of Salo but its depressing mood will get to any viewer. And the thing is the movie doesn't sag for even a minute, there is always an unseen tension hovering in the air. Manfred Zapatka's powerful, controlled and sculpted-in-stone performance is the only reason behind that. Saless' technique is very Fassbinder-ish, the movie looks like one too, and the way he slowly unveils his frames is great. The background score is seeped in melancholy and its expert use at important moments lend an universal appeal to the movie, making you writhe in pain for the fate of the characters. And the strangest thing is its all so real that you won't feel you are watching a movie, its all too vivid, too candid and the acting by all 6 is exactly to that tune. And what a conclusion, you got to watch this I say, because after 150 minutes of harrowing, great film-making, the conclusion takes this to a cathartic level, and again the acting, the sense of timing is what makes the sequence a poignant knockout. Awesome movie, heavily recommended.
3 Reviews
Mesmerizing cold tale
xmm-981288 January 2024
I was very impressed by this film. I saw it around 2000, on French television (when this was still possible !!), and 20 years later I looked for it everywhere without success until the day when finally, an amateur posted it on YT, in excellent quality. It is a very cold film, which tells of the hell experienced by professionals in the world of prostitution in Berlin, in a brothel. Acting is impressive, coldness and slow violence.. The colors of the film are striking, the story progresses slowly to reveal the wounds of the women. For me it is an undeniable masterpiece. This film deserves a dvd release.
Simple, but not satisfying
Horst_In_Translation8 August 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"Utopia" is a West German German-language movie from 1983, so this one will have its 35th anniversary next year. It is among the more known works by the late Iranian writer and director Sohrab Shahid Saless and it is also among the most known efforts by pretty much all cast members. It is a very long movie at comfortably over three hours and it was shown on television in two sittings occasionally because of that. So you will certainly need a great deal of patience if you plan on watching it all at once. This is the story of a pimp and several prostitutes working for him. It all about the mentality in the group, but also about the women's very different relationships with their sadistic boss. Violence and sex are common components in here, but it is never too graphic. Instead the film wants to be a character study most of the time, but it rarely succeeds. The story and visual side reminded me of Rainer Werner Fassbinder at times, but one year after the man's death, this one here is probably just a fairly poor man's version of RWF's better/best works sadly. His footsteps are definitely way too difficult to fit in for Saless, at least at that point. The cast is not really helping. Zapatka is the only one I believe I have heard of and while he was mediocre, none of the actresses made an impact either. They really felt interchangeable most of the time. The film also could have fit into half the runtime as there were more than enough lengths. At the core, it is all about the women's plans on how to get rid of their tormentor. Run away? Call the police? Get criminals to help them? Or even kill him on their own? Sadly the film was bland enough so I would not care at all what they would choose. I also believe the material may be more suitable for a stage play than a film really, but again at a considerably shorter running time. I was also somewhat unimpressed that the entire film, long as it was, plays inside probably to create a prison/claustrophobic atmosphere, but it did not work from that perspective either to me. I give the movie a thumbs-down. Don't watch.
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