Marmoulak (The Lizard) poster & wallpaper
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Parviz Parastoei, Rana Azadvar, Mehran Najafi, Shahrokh Forutanian, Parviz Parastui ... see more see more... , Bahram Ibrahimi , Shahrokh Foroutanian

A crook gets a crash course in offering moral guidance in this Iranian comedy. Reza (Parviz Parastui) is a thief known to his underworld cronies as "The Lizard" thanks to his gift for scaling walls an... read more read more...d climbing buildings. However, Reza's talent doesn't prevent him from being periodically caught by police; he's sent to a prison where the warden, who regards Reza as morally corrupt, takes it upon himself to torture him into a more spiritually pure state. Reza soon strikes up a friendship with a mullah (an Islamic priest) who offers a more benevolent and humanistic spiritual viewpoint. But, while Reza admires the mullah, that doesn't stop him from taking the holy man's clothes as a disguise for an escape attempt. Reza's plan works, but circumstances dictate that he must continue to pose as a mullah when the over-enthusiastic congregation at a mosque mistake him for their new leader, and he finds himself forced to offer spiritual advice based on his gut feelings rather than any extensive Islamic teachings. A major box-office success in Iran that broke box-office records, Marmoulak (aka The Lizard) also won the audience award at Tehran's Fajr Film Festival. Though popular, the film was increasingly controversial in its home country and was banned in some areas; pressure from clerics, the judiciary, and the Culture Ministry eventually led the filmmakers to withdraw it from theaters in May of 2004 (it had premiered in April and was expected to run until at least July). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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90% liked it

427 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 55 min.

Directed by: Kamal Tabrizi

Release Date: April 1, 2004

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Flixster Reviews (37)

  • denebkaitos
    April 28, 2010
    denebkaitos
    The Lizard is about a man named Reza, who has the moniker ?lizard? because of his talent to climb walls and get into trouble. To escape his life sentence from prison he disguises himself as a Mullah. On his way to the border he is mistaken for a Mullah that was supposed to arrive... read more on the same train. When he tries to ditch his disguise and escape across the border he finds himself delayed. On the surface the movie is a comedy portraying the ridiculous circumstances surrounding Reza. Pealing back the layers reveals a much deeper story that begins to justify why the movie was banned in Iran. The movie is a social and political commentary about Iranian culture and the government.

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Marmoulak (The Lizard) Trivia

  • In the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which actor played Dorian Gray.  Answer »
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