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Under the Skin of the City (2003)
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Reviews Counted: 31
Fresh: 27
Rotten:4
Average Rating: 7/10
Theatrical Release:Mar 14, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY marks the first U.S. release of a film by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, one of Iran's most acclaimed filmmakers, and widely regarded as the First Lady of Iranian Cinema.... UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY marks the first U.S. release of a film by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, one of Iran's most acclaimed filmmakers, and widely regarded as the First Lady of Iranian Cinema. Providing a bracingly fresh and provocative vision of Iranian urban society, the film deals with Tuba, a mother of four, who is faced with unexpected challenges that threaten her family and way of life. Oldest son Abbas works to obtain a foreign work visa, which he hopes will allow him the opportunity to better his family's lot and win the hand of a pretty office girl. To make his final payment, he sells the family home, but when his travel plans fall apart, Tuba is forced to take drastic measures to save her house and her son. UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY is a stirring, powerful drama, and unlike any Iranian film seen in the U.S. thus far -- it breaks apart more established representations of Iranian society, presenting us with a portrait that differs surprisingly little from one of our own. -- © Magnolia Pictures [More]
Starring: Golab Adineh, Mohammed Reza Forutan, Baran Kosari, Ebrahin Sheibani
Starring: Golab Adineh, Mohammed Reza Forutan, Baran Kosari, Ebrahin Sheibani, Mohsen Ghazi Moradi, Mehraveh Sharifinia, Homeira Riazi, Ali Osivand, Mehrdad Falahatger, Maryam Boubani, Nazanin Farahani
Director: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad
Director: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad
Studio: Magnolia Pictures
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Reviews for Under the Skin of the City
With understated skill and absolute authenticity, the film builds with enough layers that by its powerful ending, you'll feel as if you have been kicked in the stomach.
Sometimes fuzzy in structure, the movie is also uncompromisingly realistic, taking us into Tehran offices and factories and onto construction sites.
Bani-Etemad's gift is her ability to make immediate the human struggle at the heart of a family caught in a time and place so unmoored from tradition that ritual has become cruelty.
Strikes a melodramatic, soap operatic tone...doesn't penetrate deep enough to touch a raw emotional nerve.
Fine performances in a family melodrama that doesn't quite stand out as particularly special.
Ms. Bani-Etemad seems to have a firm hand on the social pulse on her nation, particularly the slowly changing roles of women in a place where change is eyed with both desire and suspicion.
A lyrical, mesmerizing look at the struggles one average Iranian family faces in their daily lives.
The movie might lack the artistic accomplishment of better-known Iranian movies, but it tempers its melodrama with unflinching willingness to take us inside lives that otherwise would remain remote to us.
A series of melodramatic moments that will have the audience rolling their eyes in disbelief - if they can keep them open, that is.
This splendid film is no mere polemic, for Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, often called the first lady of Iranian cinema, is above all an accomplished storyteller and dramatist who understands the evocative power of sound and image.
Distinguished, like so much contemporary Iranian cinema, by the way its striking visuals and strategic use of sound tell the underlying story.
In the process of pushing the envelope of acceptance, Bani-Etemad carries off the neat trick of presenting an involving, beautifully cast film that portrays contemporary Iranian issues in a remarkably universal light.
Bani-Etemad uses practical characters and somber camerawork to tell an inspirational tale and reveal the levels of sexism in Iran.
Honored by Iranian film critics as the best film of 2001, and one can understand why without finding the film itself entirely satisfying in its voluble bleakness and expressionist despair.
Bani-Etemad shows us Iranian family life from the perspective of a nuclear family, one that bears an uncomfortable resemblance to the ones we know and love.
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