Marmoulak
| Marmoulak Persian: 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 |
| Edited by | Hossein Zandbaf |
| Distributed by |
Barian Entertainment Ltd. (non-USA), Faradis (worldwide), ICA Projects (2005) (UK) |
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Release date
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2004 |
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Running time
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115 min. |
| Language | Persian |
The Lizard (Persian: مارمولک , Marmoulak) is a 2004 Iranian comedy drama film directed by Kamal Tabrizi, written by Peiman Ghasemkhani and starring Parviz Parastui as Reza "the lizard" Mesghali, a small-time thief.
The film satirizes the clergy, religion, Iranian society, and life in general. A copy of The Lizard with English subtitles is widely available online.
Reza Mesghaly, known as Reza the Lizard, is a thief known in criminal circles for his ability to bare-handedly climb all walls (from which he derives his name, "the Lizard", or "Marmoulak" in Persian). At the very beginning of the film, he is arrested and charged with armed robbery, a crime that as revealed near the ending of the film, he did not commit. Nonetheless, he is sentenced to life in prison, and is met at the jailhouse by a strict warden, who says that his intention is to "make a person out of prisoners"; thus they will be led into heaven; "by force," if necessary.
Reza is very restless at the prison, to the point where he steals medicine from the infirmary with and commits suicide. He is unable to go through with the act, however, and is stopped by his cellmate, who in the course of fighting with Reza causes the medicine bottle to break and cut open his arm. Reza is sent to the hospital to recover, where he meets a cleric, also staying in the hospital, also by the name of Reza. During his stay, the two become friends, and Reza Marmoulak overcomes his dislike of the Islamic clergy to accept the mullah after he is told a profound statement which stays with him for the rest of the film - "There are as many ways to reach God as there are people in the world."
Before he is discharged back into the prison, Reza Marmoulak steals the cleric's clothing, and impersonating him, is able to escape the prison and contact one of his friends, who tells him to go to a small border village and contact a man who will give him a fake passport to cross the border with. In the meantime, the warden is informed that Reza has escaped, and seeing this as a personal blemish on his record, pursues the criminal to the border village. Arriving by train at the village, Reza is taken in by the villagers who mistake him as the new mullah who was supposed to join their mosque.
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Wikipedia