Ekhrajiha

Masoud Dehnamaki iranian journalist فارسی: مسعود دهنمکی ردبیر و مدیرمسؤول و فیلم‌ساز (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ekhrajiha (Persian: اخراجی ها‎, English: The Outcasts) is a 2007 Iranian film, written and directed by Masoud Dehnamaki, set during the Iran–Iraq War.

The film is Dehnamaki’s first feature film, after he directed two documentaries about social problems in Iran. Dehnamaki is known to be one of Iran’s most extreme ultra-conservatives, with his viewpoints being extremely controversial.

The film had also broken all box-office records in Iran, earning nearly 1 billion toman only twenty-eight days after its release and finishing its run with over 2 billion toman. Additionally the film is one of few Iranian war movies in which the heroes are extremely flawed and shown to commit acts often viewed as “immoral” by authorities in Iran.

The movie, set in 1988 begins when Majid (Kambiz Dirbaz), a local thug from Southern Tehran is freed from prison along with his friend Amir (Arzhang Amirfazli). To avoid embarrassment, Majid and his friends have told his family and neighborhood that Majid is returning from Hajj at Mecca. His lie though is revealed after some mistakes by Amir and his other friend Bayram (Akbar Abdi).

Majid has been attempting to show that he is an honorable man so he can marry Narges (Niousha Zeyghami), the daughter of Mirza (Manouchehr Azar); a pious man in the neighborhood. Bayram on the other hand wants to marry Majid’s sister Marzieh (Negar Forouzandeh). In order to impress Narges and her father, Majid decides he must go to the front and fight against the Iraqi Army.

Majid, Amir, Bayram, Mostafa (Alireza Osivand), Bijan (Amin Hayai) and a local musician sign up for the war and head off to training. Here they are met with opposition by Haj Saleh (Mohamad Reza Sharifinia) and Kamali (Ghasem Zareh), who question their faith as Majid and his friends don’t pray, gamble, use foul language, smoke and use drugs. They are eventually kicked out of training but with the help of an acquaintance from the neighborhood named Morteza (Javad Hashemi) they are allowed to go back to training.

Morteza attempts to “reform” Majid and his friends as they go through the last days of the Iran–Iraq War.

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