‘A Shrine’: Edinburgh Review

Dir/scr: Abdolreza Kahani. Canada/Iran/France. 2024. 85mins

The latest independent feature from prolific Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani (Twenty, Absolutely Tame Is A Horse, Isthmus etc) focuses on a middle-aged man who prides himself on always telling the truth. Embarking on a lucrative get-rich-quick scheme built on deception provokes a deepening crisis of conscience. Kahani brings a deadpan, mumblecore-style approach to a potentially farcical premise in a modest affair that takes some time to warm up, but offers a salutary lesson that honesty is always the best policy. 

The accumulation of guilt and remorse combine to push the film in a more serious direction

Iranian-born Nima (Nima Sadr) runs a car valeting business in Montreal. Sporting his trademark flat cap, unshaven and always dressed in black, he is like a more lugubrious version of Gianni Di Gregorio’s charmer from Mid-August Lunch (2008). Living in an RV, he is constantly listening to self-improvement podcasts and always looking for ways to live a healthier, happier life. He believes that regular consumption of melons helps rejuvenate the lungs and low-intensity water sports promote joint health. Family members question why he doesn’t have a relationship, and he claims his loneliness is the price he has to pay for being a truth teller and not a hypocrite.

The initial twenty minutes or so of A Shrine (whose previous title was A Tribute To Lies) are deliberately mundane as Kahani establishes Nima’s everyday life. Kahani uses a non-professional cast and no crew, and has shot the entire film himself using a mobile phone and voice recorder in order to embrace a truly independent authenticity. Brightly lit and flatly filmed, early scenes struggle to make much of an impression as we see Nima and his employees working on cars, his friendships, his relationship with his mother and his hypochondrial nature.

Matters improve when the plot starts to kick in. Nima’s friend Masoud (Masoud Motehaver) is taking his 90 year-old mother on a pilgrimage to Iran. Nima discovers that Iranians now resident in Canada pay a small fortune to travel back and donate to some of the 30,000 shrines in their home country. Nima hits on the idea of building a mobile religious shrine in Canada, thus saving them the expense. He also intends to keep their donations and finance his long desired easy life. Acquiring wood and fabric from Iran, Nima constructs a modest shrine that he now transports around Montreal in his RV. The plan is a money-making success, but the trust and generosity of those who use it to donate hundreds of dollars become almost too much for Nima to bear.

As Kahani explores the consequences of Nima’s uncharacteristic action, the film develops into a more substantial proposition. There is some very dry humour mined from the individuals (believers and cynics alike) who arrive at Nima’s humble shrine. There is also more visual flair in the filmmaking with Kahani favouring odd angles, overhead shots and static camerawork where characters are cropped from the frame. An exterior shot of the RV shows Nima’s legs dangling out of a window. There is also more variety in the locations as Nima takes to the road, visits his friend Masoud for advice or ventures into snowy woodlands and frozen lakes as he attempts to come to terms with what he has done.

The accumulation of guilt and remorse combine to push the film in a more serious direction. By then, Kahani has won over the viewer to his oddball central character, making Nima’s disappointment in himself unexpectedly moving.