All Restrictions End

"In the early days of the Iranian revolution, anyone with press lines on his trousers would be dismissed from work. How can one say his prayers [to Allah] without breaking his trousers' press lines?" This and other reflections on Islam and clothing characterize the thought-provoking free-form documentary All Restrictions End. With clothing as the leitmotif, the filmmaker provides the history of Iran, the country of his birth, where hangings are commonplace occurrences. It is an endless series of confrontations between groups that all want something different for their country. Clothing remains the point of departure in the stories about Iran, a land that has tottered for centuries between East and West, the present and the past, freedom and repression. In Baudelaire's words, fashion is the mirror of the times, and that makes it a great metaphor for what is going on in a country. The experimental form of the film reminds us of Jean-Luc Godard's essayist work, in particular his Histoire(s) du Cinéma. A sometimes dizzying montage of images, sound bites and absurd animations that provide the film with a funny footnote every now and then. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)