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Aug 10, 2015 By Cody Ray Shafer Web Exclusive

Every once in a while there is a film that not only surpasses expectations, but epitomizes the power of film itself. Such high praise should be reserved only for truly special works, but Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s President is undoubtedly one of those films.

The titular president is the dictator (Misha Gomiashvili) of a fictional Eastern European state in the midst of a coup, abandoned with his five year old grandson (Dachi Orvelashvili), the boy he has been training to replace him. Their journey takes the man on a tour of the poverty and struggles his regime has inflicted upon the population, while he engineers plot after plot to avoid capture. “Who are our enemies?” his grandson asks. “Soldiers. People. Everyone,” he says.

President’s bold political motifs are energized by the films blatant humanity, clearing the way for warmly comic moments as well as dark turns into the recesses of man’s cruelty. It is impeccably directed, and the performances are unforgettable.

The simple construct of pairing a world-weary political figure with a child is damn effective. If it was the president alone, our empathy would be strained, but his grandson has earned no hatred, yet must endure the same trial. It also works that Makhmalbaf holds back on the man’s atrocities, revealing them slowly as the film carries on. The further he goes down the road of humiliation, the further we empathize with him, and yet more of his sins are revealed, complicating our affections toward him.

It’s also worth noting that the child is just barely old enough to deliver lines, and yet his emotions are fully developed and captivating. The pair interact so well, reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, but in military regalia. It is also through the child’s perspective that we see flashback’s to their previous lives, as he longs for the girl he danced and played with, while his grandfather struggles to find another adult with whom he had a meaningful relationship. As his status diminishes throughout the film, politics become less grand and more intimate. That is, even though he no longer holds power, he is still a political actor. It is only that his sphere of influence has shifted to a more personal level, where the stakes are perhaps even higher. He may not risk the entire wealth of his country any longer, but he risks the life of the only as the man must balance trust and cooperation with discernment and caution.

There are so many good things to say about President, but its ultimate message about power and violence is purely humanist and simple. Yet it offers a non-binary perspective on authority and lambasts political revolution. Again, all of these messages are constructed within a framework that embraces flaws and forgives the unforgivable. The beauty of this film is in fact that it is a relatively simple treatise on dictatorship, because anything more might not have been quite so engaging. Makhmalbaf favors ideology for drama at times, but in the end, that balance makes President a better film.

Author rating: 9/10