THE LOCUST in Edinburgh IFF
In the 75th edition of Edinburgh International Film Festival (August 12th to 20th, 2022), Faeze Azizkhani’s second feature film, THE LOCUST, would be screened in “Postcards From the Edge” – a new section designated to present “bold visions to expand horizons”.
After its successful world premiere at SXSW 2022, in its European premiere, THE LOCUST travels to EIFF 2022.
In Cineuropa, film critic Mariana Hristova writes, “Filmed by Alireza Barazandeh mainly in close-ups and overcrowded, claustrophobic interior spaces, The Locust is a chaotic and vivid chatterbox and difficult to follow at times. The only exterior sequences are a bird’s eye view of the two women entering the house and an imaginary talk in imaginary woods between Hanieh and her eccentric father in a Hawaiian shirt – all the rest is enclosed in their creative bubble as if the outside world didn’t exist. Meanwhile, Faezeh Azizkhani is constantly declaring her love for cinema with visual and verbal references to numerous directors, mostly male, standing for paternal figures just like her father – from Fellini to Tarantino, from Kurosawa to her real life teacher Kiarostami. The fourth wall between the running dramedy and the audience is also firmly positioned through sequences in which Hanieh speaks directly to the camera and through the clear demonstration that documentary material is very much involved too, so the viewer feels under constant pressure to distinguish fiction from reality. As for the title, referring to the locust plague, it feels like a metaphor for the disturbing outside world which constantly attacks Hanieh like a swarm of annoying insects.”