A Dragon Arrives!

Mani Haghighi's 2016 Iranian film opens with an investigation at a cemetery in 1965: a political prisoner in exile is found dead inside a shipwreck, the walls covered in strange writing. Fifty years later the records, tapes and photographs of the case surface. The film mixes documentary and fiction deliberately: part of what is presented as genuine archive was manufactured, and the director does not say so plainly. It is a comment on how history is written in Iran. The visual construction is striking; an orange car moving through a desert landscape is its signature. The narrative is deliberately unresolved and misleads the viewer. Who it's for: viewers interested in Iranian cinema and films that blur the border between genres. Who it's not for: anyone wanting a clear resolution, or who will find a playful structure irritating.