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The President
Directed by
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
2014
1h 55m
Drama
7.3
84%
69%
Watch
A brutal dictator comes face to face with the injustices committed by his regime when his country is taken over by revolutionists.
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Cast of The President
Misha Gomiashvili
The President
Dachi Orvelashvili
Grandson
Ia Sukhitashvili
The prostitute
Zura Begalishvili
Hairdresser
Lasha Ramishvili
Guard
Soso Khvedelidze
Prisonner
Dato Beshitaishvili
Eka Kakhiani
Nuki Koshkelishvili
Elene Bezarashvili
Tekla Javakhadze
Davit Dvalishvili
The President Reviews
indieWire
Steve Greene
Even though The President lacks some of the subtlety that made Makhmalbaf's previous work transcendent, this film is still a worthy testament to a fiery storyteller determined to use the medium as a necessary means of subversion.
RogerEbert.com
Godfrey Cheshire
Though the film's conclusion is viscerally harrowing (and very well staged, like most of the movie), its attempt to say something about how cycles of violence need to be ended in order for democracy to succeed tyranny seems vague and pat.
IONCINEMA.com
Nicholas Bell
Plays like an obvious sermon about authoritarianism and the bitter fallacy of revenge.
Los Angeles Times
Gary Goldstein
Although Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf says "The President" was inspired by the turbulent events of the Arab Spring, there's also a timeless quality to this absorbing and powerful fable that provides added resonance.
Village Voice
Michael Nordine
Makhmalbaf makes you feel the enormity of the President's loss of self even if you don't actually feel for him.
Film Comment Magazine
Michael Sragow
In the best moments of Kandahar, Makhmalbaf conveyed every twist of irony in these savage juxtapositions. In The President, the weight of his preaching tends to flatten out the ironies and the epiphanies.
New York Times
Ben Kenigsberg
The actual moral of the story is more trite and utopian, but still powerful: Democracy can't take root until the impulse for vengeance is gone.
Hollywood Reporter
Deborah Young
Many scenes seem designed to illustrate platitudes, at the expense of the narrative.
Variety
Jay Weissberg
Rather than sophistication cloaked in innocence, the pic feels like didacticism submerged in naivete.
Chicago Reader
J. R. Jones
A story at once timeless and contemporary, eventually pushing past the immediate matters of guilt and comeuppance to ask whether democracy can ever flourish amid an endless cycle of oppression and revenge.
National Review
Armond White
Its story of a despot (Mikheil Gomiashvili)...who escapes his country's...capital city...with his cosseted grandson (Dachi Orvelashvili) in tow...looks at brotherhood by satirizing the highhanded excesses of nationhood.
Grolsch Film Works
Anton Bitel
an uncompromising, if not entirely unforgiving parable of the trappings - and traps - of power, as well as a fairytale that leaves the viewer to decide the likelihood that they will all live happily ever after.
Reeling Reviews
Robin Clifford
It is a journey that keeps the viewer guessing on the inner thinking of the dictator.
Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Inspired by uprisings in the former Soviet bloc as well as, more pointedly, the Arab Spring, Makhmalbaf serves up a surprisingly tense, sometimes poignant parable. It's good to have him back.
Watch The President Videos
The President (US Trailer 1)
The President (US Trailer 1)
Trailer
The President (US Trailer 2)
The President (US Trailer 2)
Trailer
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