The Messenger of Joy - Review

I have been making a conscious effort to seek out more documentaries lately. They’re not hard to find, especially if you’re in the mood to be sucked into a tragic story told through dramatically lit talking heads and slowly panning social media posts. It can be harder to find smaller documentaries that show you a side of the world you haven’t been exposed to before.

The Messenger of Joy came along as one of these films for me, about Iranian painter Nasser Ovissi. Although, as you will see from the doc, it’s a bit of an understatement to just call him a painter. He is widely celebrated as one of the most influential Iranian artist’s of the last century. His style is distinct, and certainly one you would have come across in your travels. He borrows from traditional Iranian techniques and patterns, with bold and bright colours that evoke such a pleasant sense from them.

The film runs you through his life, from his early career to his latter years, where he still shows a passion for painting. His daughter, Maryam is a huge part of this documentary, providing a deeper insight into Nasser Ovissi as a man, beyond his art. For me, these aspects of the film pushed it beyond a simple look into an artists life, but showed his influences and how he was outside of his work on display.

Maryam spoke briefly on her father’s ego, and how she didn’t always enjoy how he conducted himself in his younger years. Hearing a more rounded portrait was refreshing in this case, where I feel films based on one person tend to lean either completely positive or negative.

Other speakers included scholars, collaborators and friends of Ovissi. This is where a lot of the education and history of the work comes into context. Having this balance of personal and educational kept both sides fresh while not overwhelming me on either front.

Where I had some issues with this film was in the presentation of the work, where large chunks of text were put on screen to give context to the B-roll being shown. As someone who doesn’t speak Farsi I had to pause to read the blurb on screen and then continue watching afterwards in order to make sure I was getting all the words Ovissi was saying in the interviews playing at the same time.

I also wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the transitions used in the film, which seemed to be a strange glitch effect, not really fitting the art on screen or the pace of the edits.

I found some of the music to be mixed super loud, dipping massively as someone spoke. This is a shame too because the music played over some nice scenes of Ovissi painting. The music felt almost like it was trying its best to push a happy narrative, when we could have taken it down a notch, watched an incredible artist at work and had a much more pleasant viewing experience.

My final gripe was with the voiceover, used sparingly which made it more jarring as it came out of nowhere, booming its monotone words. I appreciated the context given but think we could have gotten more from the interviews if the right questions were asked at the time.

While some of the presentation of the information didn’t align with me, the other side was stunning. There were some lovely 2D and 3D animation to accompany interviews and a great treatment of archive footage that set the tone for the period while not pulling me out of the film completely.

I also thought that all the interviews were really well filmed, with lovely and colourful backdrops for each interviewee. These were a welcome companion to the animation, making it flow really nicely in sections of historical context or equally in personal anecdotes from Ovissi himself.

Much of Ovissi’s words were taken from interviews he did in 2023 or even further back through archive media. All of this was so welcome alongside the interviews about his life and his work. Hearing him speak personally on his influences and his genuine love for art was like some nice powdered sugar on the nicely baked cake that this film turned out to be.

An interesting aspect of the film is the repeated mention of Ovissi as an Iranian diplomat, where he travelled to the likes of Madrid and America to represent Iran. There is a clear motivation from Ovissi to return to art during this period, almost combining both, with a show in collaboration with Salvador Dalí.

A surprising side seen to Ovissi is his emotional freedom, where a long awaited reunion with a childhood friend turned into the emotional peak of the film for me, or hearing Maryam speak of her helping him in his older age, and his tears of gratitude every morning as she comes in to greet him.

I am delighted to have experienced a film like this, that doesn’t overstay its welcome, comes in, teaches and pushes emotion, then fades out with a smile. Alexander Kwanje does a great job in the directing chair with this one, assembling a picture of a deeply important figure without falling into traps of placing Ovissi on a pedestal.

I hope The Messenger of Joy gets more eyes on it as it releases on further formats, and more people can experience the life and work of one Nasser Ovissi.