The Lizard (film)

Marmoulak
Persian: مارمولک ‎

Film poster
Directed by Kamal Tabrizi
Produced by Manouchehr Mohammadi
Written by Peiman Ghasemkhani
Starring Parviz Parastui,
Bahram Ibrahimi,
Shahrokh Foroutanian,
Farideh Sepah Mansour,
Maedeh Tahmasebi
Music by Mohammad Reza Aligholi
Cinematography Hamid Khozui-Abyaneh
Edited by Hossein Zandbaf
Distributed by Barian Entertainment Ltd. (non-USA),
Faradis (worldwide),
ICA Projects (2005) (UK)
Release dates
 2004
Running time
 115 min.
Language Persian

The Lizard (Persian: مارمولک ‎, Marmoulak) is a 2004 Iranian comedy drama film directed by Kamal Tabrizi, written by Peiman Ghasemkhani, and starring Parviz Parastui as Reza, the lizard.

Although a comedy, the film makes serious points about the clergy, religion, society in Iran, and life in general. A copy of Marmoulak with English subtitles is widely available online.

Plot

Reza Mesghaly, known as Reza the Lizard, is a thief known in criminal circles for his ability to scale the walls of buildings (from which he derives his name, "Marmoulak", or "lizard" in Persian). At the very beginning of the film, he is arrested and charged with armed robbery, a crime that is revealed over the course of the movie that he did not commit. Nonetheless, he is sentenced to life in prison, and is met at the jailhouse by a cruel warden, who says that his intention is to "make Reza a person," and to make him repent so that he will be accepted into heaven, "by force," if necessary.

Reza is very restless at the prison, to the point where he steals medicine from the infirmary with which to commit suicide. He is unable to go through with the act, however, and is stopped by his cellmate, who in the course of fighting with Reza causes the medicine bottle to break and cut open his arm. Reza is sent to the hospital to recover, where he meets a cleric, also staying in the hospital, also by the name of Reza. During his stay, the two become friends, and Reza Marmoulak overcomes his dislike of the Islamic clergy to accept the mullah after he is told a profound statement which stays with him for the rest of the film - "There are as many paths to reach God as there are people in the world."

Before he is discharged back into the prison, Reza Marmoulak steals the cleric's clothing, and impersonating him, is able to escape the prison and contact one of his friends, who tells him to go to a small border village and contact a man who will give him a fake passport to cross the border with. In the meantime, the warden is informed that Reza has escaped, and seeing this as a personal blemish on his record, pursues the criminal to the border village. Arriving by train at the village, Reza is taken in by the villagers who believe he is their new mullah at the mosque.

The remainder of the film documents Reza's attempts to get in contact with the criminal underworld to obtain his false passport, while the police pursue him at the behest of the warden, all while Reza tries to avoid tipping off the villagers to his actions. In the course of this, he becomes something of a hero in the eyes of the villagers, who misinterpret his attempts to track down his false passport as his visiting the homes of poor people and giving them charity. These actions continue to draw the praise of the villagers, convincing those who have abandoned faith in their religion to come to the mosque once again to hear the sermons of Reza Marmoulak, most of which are derived from his brief contact with the cleric in the prison's hospital.

At the end of the film, Reza is finally tracked down by the warden, and on the night of a religious celebration at the mosque, he is arrested. He hands over his robes to a small boy who had watched him over the course of the entire film, and goes peacefully with the warden and the police officer back to the prison in Tehran. The film ends with a shot inside the mosque, slowly pulling away as a man sings in the background, as the many prayer-goers in the mosque who had come to see Reza Marmoulak turned slowly to look at an unknown object outside of the field of view. The frame is frozen, and the same words spoken by the mullah in the hospital are heard spoken by Reza Marmoulak once again:

"There are as many paths to reach The God as there are people in the world."

Release

This film was released 2 months after production was complete. The director had problems getting the movie released as many clerics found the movie offensive. The movie was released during Norooz holidays in Iran, and had a very short, but successful run.

Cast

Foreign adaptations

In 2014, Turkish television channel ATV began airing a mini-series based on The Lizard.

External links