Watered-Down: "Gholhak" Movie Review

Shayan Iroomloo Tabrizi
Sep 07, 2024By Shayan Iroomloo Tabrizi

With the rise of undemanding cinema audiences, the number of films not worth watching increases each year. "Gholhak" movie was one of those movie that hit Iranian cinemas this year and closed with 4 billion tomans in sales. Here's a brief review of the extremely weak "Gholhak" movie.

Mostafa Shayesteh, known as the producer of films like "Takhti", "Canaan", and "Bi Pooli", performed poorly both technically and cinematically in his fourth film as a director. If we were to give out an award for the worst film of the year in Iranian cinema, Gholhak by Mostafa Shayesteh would definitely be one of the top contenders.

The cast of "Gholhak" movie includes Hadi Kazemi, Nima Shabannejad, Gohar Kheirandish, Hedieh Bazvand, Nasrin Nosrati, and Ali Ostadi. Honestly, none of them delivered even a decent performance. The story was watered-down that I spent the entire film just waiting for it to end.

صحنه ای از فیلم قلهک با بازی هادی کاظمی، نیما شعبان نژاد، علی استادی، گوهر خیر اندیش، نسرین نصرتی و هدیه بازوند به کارگردانی مصطفی شایسته با نقد شایان آیرملو تبریزی

The story of 'Gholhak' movie revolves around the lives of three Iranian couples living in a residential complex in north of Tehran (Gholhak neighborhood). Alongside them is a young girl who has returned from abroad (Canada) and is their neighbor, as well as the building’s janitor. They all get caught up in a bizarre situation. The plot has no real appeal a baby with a note is left outside the building, and the neighbors are all trying to push the responsibility of the baby onto each other. The wives suspect their husbands, which leads the men to expose each other and shift the blame for the baby onto someone else.

In "Gholhak" movie, gender bias is painfully obvious, portraying all the women as innocent angels trapped with men who are deceitful, lying tricksters, fooling their wives, lying to them, and cheating on them. This extreme portrayal only made the film weaker and more ridiculous.

But I wish the only problem was the weak plot and the mediocre acting. From a technical standpoint, this film was so poorly made it’s hard to even discuss. The cinematography felt like it was shot with a mobile phone, as if you were watching a mobile documentary. Cinematographer Farshad Golesfidi and editor Kaveh Imani did such a poor job that it only highlighted how bad the film was.

گوهر خیراندیش و نسرین نصرتی در فیلم قلهک به کارگردانی مصطفی شایسته و نقد شایان آیرملو تبریزی

Finally, the idea that a comedy film’s sole purpose is to make people laugh is completely wrong and unprofessional. Social concepts and issues need to be portrayed in a way that follows cinematic and technical standards. If a film just wants to make the audience laugh with a few jokes, without any meaningful content or structure, it is unprofessional from a cinematic point of view.

Hopefully, one day, comedy films will regain their proper place, and filmmakers will stop relying solely on sexual jokes and gender-biased content to create real, well-made films.

Shayan Iroomloo Tabrizi