| MarmoulakPersian: مارمولک | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Kamal Tabrizi |
| Produced by | Manouchehr Mohammadi |
| Written by | Peiman Ghasemkhani |
| Starring | Parviz Parastui, Bahram Ibrahimi, Shahrokh Foroutanian, Farideh Sepah Mansour, Maedeh Tahmasebi |
| Music by | Mohammad Reza Aligholi |
| Cinematography | Hamid Khozui-Abyaneh |
| Editing by | Hossein Zandbaf |
| Distributed by | Barian Entertainment Ltd. (non-USA), Faradis (worldwide), ICA Projects (2005) (UK) |
| Release date(s) | 2004 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Language | Persian |
| IMDb profile | |
The Lizard (Persian: مارمولک , Marmoulak) is a 2004 Iranian comedy directed by Kamal Tabrizi. Although a comedy, the film makes serious points about the clergy, religion, society in Iran, and life in general. Due to the film's perceived attacks towards clerics, the movie was banned from theatres in Iran after only being on screen for one month. Yet despite this short run, the film broke all Iranian movie box office records and was the top grossing Iranian movie of all time until Tahmineh Milani's Atash Bas (Cease-fire). A bootleg DVD of Marmoulak with English subtitles is widely available online.
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Plot
A criminal in jail, Reza Marmoulak, injures himself on purpose to stay at a hospital. Once in the hospital he escapes wearing a Islamic cleric's clothing. On his way to a border-town near Turkey he is mistaken for a village cleric and is told to go there. Once there he takes up residence in the local mosque and helps out with the villager's problems, while giving advice not usually given by clerics. Meanwhile the police and jail warden are searching Iran for him....
Cast
- Parviz Parastui (As "Reza Marmoulak")
- Bahram Ibrahimi
- Shahrokh Foroutanian
- Farideh Sepah Mansour
- Maedeh Tahmasebi
- Ali Abedini
- Rana Azadvar
- Bahram Ebrahimi
- Mehran Rajabi
- Reza Saeedi
- Naqi Seif-Jamali
Trivia
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- This film was released 2 months after production was complete. The director had problems getting the movie released as many clerics found the movie offensive.
- The movie was released during Norooz holidays in Iran, and had a very short, but successful run in one month.
- Due to the film's short run, and massive demand for tickets, many were not able to see the movie, and were forced to view bootleg copies made by people who had sneaked cell phones or camcorders into movie theatres
- "The Lizard" is the nickname given to Reza, as he has a talent for climbing walls.
See also
External links
 Cinema of Iran |
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Films A-Z • Chronology of films • Films by year: Pre 1960 • 1960s • 1970s • 1980s • 1990s • 2000s |
