Movie Review: ‘WW III’

A devastating earthquake took away everything dear – his wife and son, job and home. Shakib (Moshem Tanabandeh) has yet to recover from his losses or to remotely find interest in creating a new life.

He lives nearly homeless in a semi-shack under a highway overpass. The only work he can find, and apparently wants to find, is that of day laborer. His single regular friend is a deaf-mute young woman, Ladan (Masha Hejazi), who works for, or is a slave to, two very unsavory underworld men who control her every movement. Neither she nor Shakib have pleasant lives, but they have each other.

Shakib has worked at the same construction site for two days when he comes to the attention of the boss, who offers him regular employment and a place to stay. His offer is immediately accepted in spite of the lodging being in a cold, damp, abandoned wash house.

The daily work is demanding and tiring until the sudden arrival of a film crew which has come to make a movie about the concentration camp atrocities committed by Hitler during WW II. Construction workers are offered the chance to play extras in the movie.

Everyone is in agreement. The laborers are given costumes and the filming begins. During the scene of Hitler’s arrival at the camp, as the latter is heading for the barbed wire gate, the actor playing him collapses and is rushed to the hospital. He suffers a fatal heart attack. The director is frantic to replace him. She spots Shakib in the crowd of extras and feels he looks enough like Hitler to fill in for the late actor. Hair, make-up and costume make Shakib passable for the part.

Filming resumes and everyone is content, except for Shakib – he can’t take living in the wash house any longer. The director reluctantly decides to allow him to live in the lavish red house the crew erected for the filming. The house is beautifully furnished with all the comforts of an estate suitable for Hitler’s residency. Shakib is happy and feels he may have a future after all – that is, until Ladan hears of his new situation and sneaks onto the set.

She has escaped her captors and needs a place to hide until she can arrange to leave the country. Shakib quickly removes some floorboards in the parlor allowing Ladan access to the large crawl space under the house – her new hiding place. The captors also find out where she is and confront Shakib suggesting, for a price, he can purchase her freedom. It’s near the end of the filming so Shakib has saved some money but not enough.

He pleads with the payroll manager for an advance on his final paycheck. Even that isn’t sufficient, so the desperate Shakib seeks other sources. While in town, making arrangements for more funds, her passport and transportation out of the country, he hears the screams of fire trucks racing to the film site.

The closing scenes of the film call for the red house to be burned to the ground. Advance announcements had been broadcast so the cast could safely evacuate the premises.

Directed by Houman Seyedi (Credits: Sizdah (13), The Frog (TV series), “World War III” runs 107 minutes and is a “see” for a dramatic story with comic twists and a surprise conclusion. From Iran. Award winner at the 79th Venice Film Festival, September 2022.

johan@beachcomber.news