The Lizard film review

certificate_12A

THE LIZARD

Banned in its native Iran when the Mullahs thought the joke was on them, The Lizard mixes religious satire and drama in a tale told through the eyes of an escaped convict. This often very funny and thought-provoking film has a Woody Allen feel about it and its deftly comic touch makes it a memorable treat.

Parvis Pathui, a comedy legend in his native country, plays Reza, the title character, a perpetual thief who at the beginning of the film is beginning another lengthy stay in an unappetising Iranian prison. When he is taken ill and finds himself sharing a hospital ward with a local cleric he spots his chance. Stealing the Imam's robes, he stroll out of the prison and into Tehran where a friend promises to arrange some documents to get him out of the country.

In order to obtain the documents, Reza has to travel to a remote village near the border and here the comic adventures begins. The locals immediately take him for a visiting preacher and whisk him off to the mosque for a sermon. They are devout, naïve and delighted that such an important visitor has chosen to speak to them. Perplexed by the unusual situation he finds himself in, Reza haltingly delivers his first sermon, and uses his background as a burglar to inform his words. God is a house, he explains, which can be entered in many ways: by the front door, the fence, the chimney or with a false key. This is all lapped up by an eager and receptive audience.

Reza soon instills himself into the comfortable surroundings he is offered, barely concealing his lust for the mayor's daughter, and all the time offering cryptic messages to his public who hang on his every word. Possibly the funniest moment is a truly seminal speech on the nature of space travel, although by now one or two of his audience are slowly becoming suspicious. Added to that, his documents still haven't turned up and the prison governor is personally on his trail.