For his movie, Boycott, he was allowed inside one of Iran's most
dreadful prisons. There, amid daily atrocities of torture and
interrogation, he shot his story using actual leftist political prisoners
who were coerced into playing roles for Makhmalbaf's feature film. The
story of this film depicted leftist activists as rigid Stalinist villains,
worthy of contempt and scorn. Ironically, Makhmalbaf and company forced
these political prisoners into such self-denigrating roles as part of a
=93corrective exercise.=94 Tragically, not long after the completion of
this movie, a number of these young activists were executed, and their
bodies were hastily buried in unmarked graves. I have personally
identified and traced the fate of these victims, whom many of us used to
know personally. In the history of cinema, I can think of no filmmaker
who has committed so blatant an assault on helpless individuals as
Makhmalbaf has done without any shame or remorse. Nor, I can believe the
indifference that the world has demonstrated with regard to his actions.
Appallingly, one can readily purchase this film, a product of forced labor
and torture, on videocassette via Internet!

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Makhmalbaf's fourth feature is set in the period just prior to the Islamic Revolution and tells a story inspired by his own painful experience. Valeh, a member of a leftist organization, is arrested by the Savak and sentenced to death. In prison, he reconsiders his relationships with members of his political cell and begins to doubt the validity of the ideas for which he is condemned. At the same time, his comrades pressure him to make a sacrifice for their cause and his beloved wife experiences personal problems and economic harships. BOYCOTT evinces the bold visual style which brought Makhmalbaf international attention and is remarkable for its intimations of tolerance for diametrically opposing attitudes. The leading role of Valeh is played by Majid Majidi, who went on to direct CHILDREN OF HEAVEN and THE COLOR OF PARADISE.

Makhmalbaf addresses his prison years in the disturbing 1985 film Boycott, starring Majid Majidi (later the writer/director of Children Of Heaven and The Color Of Paradise). While the bloody opening sequence is too heavily indebted to any number of action films, Majidi's arrival in prison allows Makhmalbaf to play to his already considerable directorial strengths, creating a nightmarish environment to try his protagonist's soul. Tortured by captors, ignored by old friends for failing to toe a strict Communist line, and tormented by thoughts of the wife and child he left behind and now sees only under heavily circumscribed conditions, Majidi is plagued by visions of death and forced to choose between conformity and staying true to his revolutionary values.

As usual with early Makhmalbaf, the mood is spastic, with the styles veering from polished (the virtuoso opening, with its ominously shifting viewpoints between radicals and the secret police closing in on them, would have had Costa-Gravas taking notes) to Ed Woodish (the hero's feverish visions of his face being devoured by animated ants). Yet the picture is of interest not only in light of the director's subsequent growth, but also for its own complexities. For instance, in the concluding Marxist dance in the prison yard following the hero's death, the didactically celebratory tone is muddled by the camera's high-angle positioning, which links the hand-to-hand circles of the prisoners with the early, similarly circular overhead shot that introduces the nightmarish interrogation bureau. Instead of neatly separated, both sides of the conflict are braided together by Makhmalbaf's grinding anxiety.