19-25 January
2026
Lotfollah is a 40-year-old man working at a brick manufacture factory in Iran as a supervisor. He is regularly confronted by his fellow workers about their late salaries, and tries to maintain everyone content in the face of an inevitable shutdown of the factory.
In a traditional brick factory located in a remote part of Iran, Lotfollah spends his life working as a supervisor. He was born and raised there, and he does his best to maintain peace between his boss and his colleagues. Despite salaries being 10 months late, the boss promises to help everyone, sometimes in unofficial ways. The boss continuously warns his employees about the possibility of shutdown, reminding them of how all houses are now made of cement. In a repetition loop, the film slowly reveals more and more of its characters as individual people dealing with their common destiny of imminent unemployment.
The Wasteland is a black-and-white film filled with camera pans, which cross numerous brick walls in the dry working environment. Scenes from workers inside the factory often are followed by scenes of domestic houses, where their families need to find ways to circumvent poverty, precariousness and uncertainty in their lives.
Ahmad Bahrami (b. 1972) is a film director born in Sharyar, Iran. He has previously directed Panah (2017), and his second feature The Wasteland (2020) was selected in the Horizons section at the Venice Film Festival.
2020 The Wasteland
2017 Panah
Kl 11:30
Driv Cinema
Kl 16:00
TIFF Digital
Kl 22:00
Fokus 4
Kl 19:00
Verdensteatret
Programme: | The Price of Inequality , TIFF Digital |
Original title: | Dashte Khamoush |
Director: | Ahmad Bahrami |
Country: | Iran |
Year: | 2020 |
Run time: | 1h 43m |
Screenplay: | Ahmad Bahrami |
Photo: | Masud Amini Tirani |
Cast: | Touraj Alvand, Ali Bagheri, Majid Farhang, Mahdie Nassaj, Farrokh Nemati |
Dialogue: | Persian, Turkish, Kurdish |
Producer: | Saeed Bashiri |