28/06/2024 - Jurijs Saule's first feature film is based on an acting and ethical duel, questioning religions, faith, divine forces and, above all, the fanaticism they can lead to

The debut film by German director Jurijs Saule, Martin Reads the Quran [+see also:
interview: Jurijs Saule
film profile] has been screened as part of the German Film Fest Madrid. With a script written by the director and Michail Lurje, both of whom are also producers, the film tells how a university professor (Ulrich Tukur) who specialises in interpreting the Quran receives an unexpected visit from a student (Zejhun Demirov) who asks to be examined. He is upset and nervous because, although he has left his wife and daughter at home, he is about to commit an attack in the name of his god. The teacher will have to convince the pupil to stop this attack by using the same doctrines with which others committed similar crimes.

From this tense premise, actors Zejhun Demirov and Ulrich Tukur become, as Lawrence Olivier and Michael Caine did in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's classic Sleuth (and Caine and Jude Law in its 2007 remake, directed by Kenneth Branagh), the leading protagonists of an acting duel full of dialogues, discussions and confrontations that not only question their beliefs and ethical principles, but also reveal their personalities and insecurities.

The two debate on faith, religion and its meaning in life when you have seen that your god has no mercy for the innocent. Changing scenery - an office, an auditorium, a car park, a dining room, etc. - teacher and student talk incessantly in an almost theatrical exercise that the director tries to speed up with a camera that never stops moving.

With its television aesthetic and constant appeal to suspense, Martin Reads the Quran also shows a person who has normalised lying in order to carry out heinous acts. It raises the possibility of avoiding massacres when presented with a (second) chance, and questions the limits of God's mercy and love, be it of any religion.

With all these ingredients and a shocking plot twist in the third act, Jurijs Saule condemns fanaticism, barbarism and violence, in a film where reason seems to lose its place to pain and revenge. But, as the film assures us, it is only through dialogue, even between antagonists or culturally distant people, that peace and harmony can be achieved, no matter how opposed the ideologies, personal principles and deeply held beliefs of each contender may seem.

Martin Reads the Quran is produced by Blobel Film. Its international sales are managed by Media Luna New Films.

(Translated from Spanish by Vicky York)