Optimum Screenings UK
Somehow, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof managed to produce this film (largely shot in Iran) despite his country’s censorship. Manuscripts Don’t Burn indicts Iran’s authoritarian regime for cowing the intelligentsia by fear and surveillance and resorting to brutality and murder when anxiety and persuasion fail. Elliptical, imaginative, populated by vivid characters and fraught with a looming sense of unease, Manuscripts Don’t Burn is a slowly building drama drawn from incidents of repression. It’s brave cinema.
