The Weaver of Details: An Interview with Reza Mirkarimi

It is a surprise that Reza Mirkarimi isn't discussed more - perhaps it is because his work doesn't fulfill the global cinephilic expectation of Iranian cinema: films where human beings transform into concepts. Instead, they forge an existence as autonomous, sovereign beings full of whim. The participants in his films are self-propelled motors whose various functions he employs as instruments of the narrative: they glance, sigh, frown and glare; they lumber, collapse, dart in a frenzy and then come to a halt - as such, they consistently shift positions through the houses (apartment blocks or as in this case, a large family home), allowed as they desire, to deposit the narrative where they go or abandon it fully. In Mirkarimi, therefore, there are as many stories as there are rooms; in Mirkarimi, there are many stories but no concepts. Kaz Rahman sat with the director at the conclusion of a special screening of A Cube of Sugar (2012, a masterpiece) to discuss his special, exclusive method.