Browse: Home / Film on the Internet: “TATTOO”

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Review: MISSING
  • Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction)
  • TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)

Film on the Internet: “TATTOO”

Posted By ZoeZ on December 7, 2022 in Reviews | Leave a response

I’m going to break from my usual pattern here and cover a short film, Farhad Delaram’s “Tattoo.” This is fifteen minutes of bureaucratic hell, of prodding and obtuseness and petty power plays; that’s the kind of material that can tilt easily towards either comedy or horror, and “Tattoo,” spare and realistic, ends up being the bleakest horror. It’s Orwellian: “Imagine a boot stamping on a human face–forever.” Clearly just the sort of thing you should watch over your lunch break, if you have a moment.

The film keeps a tight focus on a young Iranian woman (Behdokht Valian) who is renewing her driver’s license but must, she is told, have a doctor certify that her crushed finger is no obstacle to her handling a manual transmission. But this is just an excuse to humiliate her with an intense, ostensibly impersonal scrutiny that is always demanding that she expose herself, physically and psychologically. Her tattoos, everyone implies, indicate that she’s unstable, and surely she can see that they can’t turn control of a large, dangerous vehicle over to someone that? And what about the scar on her wrist? How did that get there? Why doesn’t she have medical documentation to prove her story? Why is she being so hostile?

She starts the film with energy and authority, and as it’s agonizing to watch her slowly realize that she’s trapped in a vise designed to press in tighter and tighter until all the selfhood is squeezed out of her. Clear answers avail her nothing, because the questions are meaningless and slanted and the people asking them aren’t listening anyway. The only logic at work is the emotional logic of power, which says that since she dared to feel some sense of control over her own life, some sense of internal value separate from whatever value was assigned to her by the state, she must be cowed and crushed.

It’s concise and powerfully handled, and it avoids being nothing more than a dark shot of misery. It’s more proof that short films would benefit from being culturally treated like short stories, with occasional anthologies and single-director collections to found them up so they can get wider exposure. In lieu of that, you can find this streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Posted in Reviews | Tagged Film on the Internet, Short Film

About the Author

lamijames@gmail.com'

ZoeZ

Related Posts

TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN→

Film on the Internet: THE VERDICT→

Film on the Internet: SMILE→

Film on the Internet: STRANGE DAYS→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33256 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27267 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    24591 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    19945 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    10919 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • I should really be finish this post for The Solute but I can't stop watching kidnapping videos.

    Review: MISSING

    February 2, 2023 / The Ploughman
  • Don't they look comfy?

    Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure

    February 1, 2023 / Gillianren
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction)

    February 1, 2023 / CM Crockford
  • TV on the Internet: PAUL T. GOLDMAN

    February 1, 2023 / Ruck Cohlchez
  • Year of the Month: DRY SUMMER (SUSUZ YAZ)

    January 31, 2023 / Sam "Burgundy Suit" Scott

Last Tweets

  • MISSING is a twisty mystery in the style of 2018's SEARCHING. https://t.co/SG8DxBlxv9, 3 hours ago
  • Sometimes the Narrative Is Pure - https://t.co/EMnSPhPe3P, 21 hours ago
  • The Solute Book Club: FURNACE (An Introduction) - https://t.co/nM1pl98Pee, Feb 1

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!