From Hollywood atmosphere to Basmei types; Why is "Yale" not believable?

The first episode of "Yel" series, instead of accompanying the audience with its fictional world, confronts him with an unreal atmosphere, fake characters and artificial relationships that question the overall believability of the work.

According to Mehr's reporter, the first episode or pilot of any series is an opportunity for the writer and director to put their hook in the mind of the audience and encourage them to watch the continuation of the story. An opportunity that the Mahmoudi brothers did not succeed in using in the first episode of "Yel" series. The first episode of this series, instead of accompanying the audience with its fictional world, confronts him with an unreal atmosphere, fake characters and artificial relationships that not only do not help the story, but also question the overall believability of the work.

The first and perhaps the most important drawback of "Yale" is its unsuccessful space construction; A space that is supposed to present an image of an Iranian village in the 50s, but in practice it is far from the social and geographical realities of Iran at that time. The village depicted in this series does not have a specific geographical identity, nor does it have credible cultural and social signs that can be attributed to Iran in the 50s.

This distance from reality is also visible in the design of the set and costumes. The covering of the characters and the appearance of the environment, instead of being derived from the accurate knowledge of the historical period and the lifestyle of the people in the villages of Iran, has a dramatic and unnatural mood. It is as if the creators have gone to the familiar patterns of classic Hollywood cinema rather than trying to recreate life in an Iranian village; A model in which costume design and atmosphere creation are supposed to create a cinematic image of a historical period, even if this image does not correspond much to local realities.

Therefore, the atmosphere of "Yale" is more like a combination of the atmosphere of America in the early 20th century and some classic Hollywood movies, such as "Kushes of Anger" and "How lush was my valley", rather than reminiscent of the villages of Iran in the 50s. It's as if the Mahmoudi brothers were looking for a kind of homage to John Ford's cinema in the use of picture frames, camera lens selection, atmosphere creation and costume design; Unsuccessful and Iranized religious performance, which has finally led to an incongruous atmosphere lacking an independent identity. The problem is not only the visual similarity to other cinematic works, but also the fact that such an atmosphere cannot take the audience to Iran in the 50s and make them believe in the fictional world of the series.

The problem of "Yale" is not limited to space creation and clothing design. The characterizations are also cartoonish and unrealistic from the very beginning. Rather than being living people with individual characteristics, the characters are more like pre-made types that are supposed to play specific roles in the story. Their reactions and behaviors in many situations are so artificial that it is impossible to establish a natural connection between the characters and the world around them.

Relationships between people also suffer from the same problem, and a significant part of human communication in the first part seems fake and lacks depth. In such a situation, the audience does not get enough opportunity to get to know the characters, nor can they get along with their relationships. Characters who are not yet believable, how can they involve the audience in their fate?

During about 70 minutes of the first episode of "Yel", the story does not start in the literal sense of the word. Except for the final minutes, most of the time is spent introducing characters and dialogues that do not have much effect on the progress of the narrative and situations that neither open a knot of the story nor raise important questions in the mind of the audience. As a result, instead of being a prelude to the formation of an attractive narrative, the first part becomes a series of scattered scenes that have not yet been able to draw the main line of the story properly.

In the meantime, the inclusion of scenes of dancing and singing, consumption of alcoholic beverages, showing parts of the movie "King of Hearts" and men and women singing together in a village cafe with a well-known song, rather than serving the narrative, seem to be an attempt to create memorable and viral moments in the virtual space. These scenes do not contribute much to the formation of character relationships, nor do they have a convincing function in the context of the story. No matter how hard the audience of the series tries, they won't believe that in a cafe restaurant with a rural culture of the 50s, women in urban clothing sit next to men and have fun, and the woman in the cafe moves among them with rhythmic movements and is busy serving food, but no words or traditions arise, while in the previous episodes we saw some people harassing a defenseless person or insulting and humiliating a girl in the bakery line because of her mother's background.

It seems that after the success of the "Lionskin" series, the Mahmoudi brothers are still looking to repeat the formula that has worked for them before. In recent years, there have been speculations about making a spin-off of "Lion Skin" centered on the character of Reza Parvaneh in the virtual space; Before the publication of works such as "Dariush" and "Yel" there were rumors about their connection with the fictional world of "Lion Skin" and after the publication of the series, it became clear that these news were not true and were only designed and broadcast to attract the audience.

The first part of "Yale" suffers more than anything else from the lack of independent identity in atmosphere creation, characterization and narration. The village, which is supposed to represent a part of Iran in the 50s, has turned into an artificial space influenced by the cinematic patterns of some classic Hollywood movies; The characters who have to bear the emotional burden of the story have not yet gone beyond stereotypes and the narrative that should bring the audience along with them is not formed in most of the minutes of the first episode.

Perhaps it would be better for the Mahmoudi brothers to take a different path instead of relying on the memory of the success of "Lion Skin" and trying to repeat the previous formulas; A path based on a coherent script, detailed characterization and a serious study of the historical and geographical period that they intend to recreate. The success of a series depends more on the ability of the creators to create a believable world and an attractive story than on elaborate scenes or eye-catching atmospheres; A world that the audience can accept as part of the fictional reality and be eager to discover its continuation.