Police characters in films—especially in comedies—are often not portrayed with likable or respectable faces. Aside from crime/action films, in comedies like those of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, or Laurel and Hardy, police officers are usually shown as awkward figures with anti-heroic appearances. In French cinema too, the police often come across as unpleasant or intrusive, particularly in films where the protagonists—like Alain Delon or Jean-Paul Belmondo—are charming, likable anti-heroes. These films starkly contrast with most Iranian films, where due to strict governmental censorship, filmmakers rarely have the freedom to depict police characters in negative or unreasonable lights. The film Goodbye…
Author: Abbas Yari
Abbas Yari
Abbas Yari is an Iranian journalist and film critic born in Arak in 1951. He graduated from the School of Television and Cinema in 1975. Yari began his journalism career at Sobh e Emrouz, Tehran Mosavvar, and Kayhan, before co-founding Film magazine, which he directed until 2021. He launched Film Emrooz in 2021 after Massoud Mehrabi’s passing. Yari helped establish the Iranian cinema museum in Tehran and the foundation of art critics and writers about Iranian cinema. He is also notable for organizing cultural events in Arak. Other nominees for 2025 Bridging The Borders were: DAHOMEY, (Senegal), GHOST TRAIL (France/Germany/Belgium), ODD FISH (Iceland/Finland/Czech Republic), READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN (Italy/Israel), TATAMI (Georgia/Israel/Iran), TINĀ (MOTHER) (New Zealand/New Zealand), TO A LAND UNKNOWN (United Kingdom/Palestine/France/Greece/Netherlands/Germany/Qatar/Saudi Arabia) and TOUCH (Iceland)