Into the Jaws of the Ogre (Dans la gueule de l’ogre) is the title of the feature film debut from Iranian-French director Mahsa Karampour. Co-written with Maya Haffar, the documentary has a road movie feel and is about Karampour and her very different brother Siavash, their bond, their experiences in France and the U.S., respectively, and the experience of life of displaced and exiled people.
Into the Jaws of the Ogre takes audiences on a music-tinged cinematic journey between Iran and the United States, between past and present, including clandestinely shot footage from Iran. World premiering on Thursday, May 14 in the lineup of ACID, the Cannes Film Festival sidebar run by France’s association of film directors, viewers get to experience the siblings’ discussions, struggles, hopes and dreams.
“I can’t quite grasp the adventurous life of my brother Siavash, so far from my own,” the filmmaker explains in a synopsis for the film. “While I have just become French and he is about to become American, far from our native Iran, we are searching for common ground.”
ACID general delegate Pauline Ginot calls it “a film that makes us reflect on what happens to these young people from Tehran’s punk underground scene, once in exile. Through this story, familiar from The Yellow Dogs, the film explores another one, a more intimate one: the experience of exile – idealized, yet rarely acknowledged in the face of the hardships of exile.”
