The Tenants

A half finished apartment block in Tehran. There are four flats and all are let. The owner has died and the heirs are unknown; the estate agent runs the building as if it were his own and collects the rents. The building is neglected: a water pipe bursts, the drains overflow, there is no lift and the roof leaks. The tenants fight first with the agent and then with each other. Each defends his own interest and none of them moves out. As the trouble grows the building physically falls apart as well. Dariush Mehrjui directs. Akbar Abdi and Ezzatollah Entezami are in the cast. It is an Iranian production. The film was a large commercial success in Iran and among the country's most watched comedies. The form is farce; events accelerate, the fights grow, and physical comedy comes forward. The matter underneath is property and administration; the building works as a figure for a society and the narrative does not hide it. Mehrjui was known for heavier films and this is his best known work in comedy. The block is used in detail as a single setting; the stairs, the courtyard and the roof are part of the plot. Its limit is pace; the fight scenes begin to repeat in the second half. Who it is for: viewers who like Iranian cinema and social comedy. Who it is not for: the humour is loud, the characters exaggerated, and the narrative moves at a coarse tempo.