Gesher — Film Review By Neil Young, September 28, 2010 04:05 ET Speaking about “Gesher” Bottom Line: Enigmatic scenes from working life in today’s Iran. SAN SEBASTIAN — Though perhaps a touch too oblique for its own good, “Gesher” represents a quietly promising feature debut from Iran’s 29-year-old writer-director Vahid Vakilifar. A patient, visually absorbing but narratively minimalist study of harsh industrial landscapes — and three men who work, live and play among them — it’s a low-key humanist portrait of simple dignity that, given the enduring popularity of Iranian fare, looks set for a healthy festival life after its world premiere in San Sebastian. Shot on high-def, high-contrast, vividly colored DV, “Gesher” functions best as a contemplation of place: an unnamed, sun-baked waterfront area which has been irrevocably and drastically altered, many would say ruined, by man. Some kind of vast industrial plant is already in place, a miniature city of lights after dark, and further construction is ongoing, involving the assembly of vast iron structures that look like something from a science-fiction movie. These developments dwarf the humans who work in and around them, but Vakilifar’s main focus is on precisely these often-overlooked toilers: middle-aged Nezam (Abdolrassoul Daryapeyma), who has a grueling and unpleasant job unblocking toilets (presented in stomach-churning close-up); thirtyish construction-worker Qobad (Ghobad Rahmanissab); and sharp-dressing, ambitious twentysomething Jahan (Hossein Farzizadeh), who drives bigwigs between various areas of what is evidently a sprawling industrial zone. The trio sleeps in one of the large, seemingly abandoned pipes which are lined up on the beach, and “Gesher” devotes much time to observing their ad-hoc domesticity and leisure periods, which they spend smoking, chatting, looking out to sea or swimming. Vakilifar’s attention to humdrum detail is impressive, considerably boosted by sound mixer Hossein Mahdavi’s multi-layered collection of machine-made and natural noises. This is very much a film of moods, atmospheres and impressions. Vakilifar isn’t much interested in conventional character development or plotting. But while this is a valid artistic standpoint, he could still have trimmed many of the scenes — he serves as his own editor — and it wouldn’t have done much harm to have given the viewer a bit more idea of what is going on, and why, and to whom. Even the title (it happens to be Hebrew for “bridge,” but that’s surely a coincidence) remains unexplained by the picture’s end. Venue: San Sebastian International Film Festival Production company: Shargh Tamash Media, Tehran Cast: Hossein Farzizadeh, Ghobad Rahmaninassab, Abdolrassoul Daryapeyma. Director/screenwriter/editor: Vahid Vakilifar. Screenwriter: Vahid Vakilifar Producer: Mohammad Rassoulof Director of photography: Mohammed-Reza Jahan Panah Sales: DreamLab Films, France No rating, 84 minutes

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BENGHAZI, Libya – In the outskirts of this city, Libya’s second largest, row after row of sand-colored concrete apartment blocks and villas are sprouting from the desert. Hundreds of kilometers away, construction cranes dot the Mediterranean skyline of the capital, Tripoli. The multibillion dollar construction frenzy taking place is the latest and most visible sign of Libya’s drive for growth. It’s a push that largely ignored the global financial meltdown that left other oil-rich Arab nations stumbling over the last couple of years, and reflects how Libya is tapping its oil wealth to reshape a country isolated for years by sanctions and international disdain. Libya is “really trying to become, for lack of a better term, a new Dubai.” said Carlos Caceres, a representative of the Los Angeles-based engineering giant AECOM working in Benghazi. He was referring to the United Arab Emirate sheikdom whose stratospheric rise was rivaled only by its staggering debt woes. AECOM is overseeing a $80 billion project to build 160,000 housing units throughout the country, about a quarter of which will be in Benghazi, and refurbishing sewage and paving roads there. Overall, however, Libya plans to spend $500 billion over the next decade on a host of projects. New universities are being planned, Tripoli’s shabby airport is being overhauled, new Toyota and Honda sedans abound in the streets and trendy cafes dot street corners. The International Monetary Fund forecasts Libya’s economy will grow by 5.4 percent this year, while the U.N. said foreign direct investment into the country quadrupled from $1 billion in 2005 to $4.1 billion in 2008. “It’s absolutely the boom country at the moment,” said Richard Barber, a British supervisor with HanmiParsons, a South Korea-based construction management company. “So many engineers from Dubai and the rest of the Mideast are coming here now and finding work, including me.” The country’s surge sits in stark contrast to the Libya of just over decade ago, when it was struggling under international and U.S. sanctions linked to Libyan leader Muammar Gadhafi’s support for terrorism and the country’s weapons of mass destruction program. Gadhafi’s decision to renounce terrorism, hand over the two suspects wanted for the 1988 airline bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland, and pay compensation to the families of the 270 people killed in the attack paved the way for Libya’s re-entry into the international community. The U.S. restored relations and reopened its embassy, American and European oil firms have flocked to the country, home to Africa’s largest proven oil reserves. In addition, the government is pushing to revamp the business climate and a rapidly growing private sector has actively sprung up, reflecting a system that analysts say is surprisingly capitalistic in a socialist nation. The projects under way are as much a product of that contradiction as they are a reflection of Libya’s challenges. Unemployment, according to the CIA, is pegged at around 30 percent, and Libya’s youth — who comprise the majority of the population — struggle to find affordable housing. It’s a prerequisite here, like elsewhere in the Arab world, for marriage. The banking sector is being reformed. Italy’s UniCredit was recently awarded the first international license. A second license has been offered, though it remains unclear when, or if, it will be awarded. But more work needs to be done, said Tarek Alwan, the managing director of SOC Libya, a London-based company that advises firms looking to do business in Libya. “Even credit cards are not widely accepted. Cash is still ‘king,’” he said. More troubling for businesses is Libya’s image and the country’s unpredictable politics. Little, if anything, in Libya happens without a nod from Gadhafi, who has ruled the nation for more than 40 years. Critics say the “Brother Leader,” as he is known domestically, is possibly the biggest single impediment to Libya’s successful and complete reintegration into the international community. In a decision that left experts scratching their heads, Gadhafi last year floated the idea of disbanding the government and distributing the country’s oil revenues directly to the people. The move — which he described as necessary because of corruption in the system — failed to materialize. Oil companies also found themselves renegotiating their contracts, and were squeezed into agreeing to turn over a bigger share of their production and paying bigger signing bonuses. Libya’s past deeds still weigh on its image. Celebrations last August for the return of the terminally ill Libyan agent who was the sole person convicted in the Lockerbie bombing from the Scottish prison ignited a furor that left the U.S. and Scotland in a political sparring match. It also left oil giant BP PLC fending off allegations that it lobbied for the man’s release just eight years into his sentence in order to win oil concessions. Whether or not BP had a role in the decision to send the Lockerbie bomber home, “they’re paying the price for it,” said John Hamilton, a Libya expert and contributing editor of Africa Energy. “And other companies looking at Libya are going to have to realize that they may have to deal with similar issues” there. For their part, the Libyans are simply focusing on making up for lost time. Throughout Benghazi, new sewage pipes and electrical lines are being laid. In Tripoli, Turkey’s EMSAS Construction is working on a $1.3 billion luxury high-rise complex along the road to the city’s airport. The Bab Tripoli complex, to be completed in November, will include 2,000 apartments, a hospital and a giant mall with an ice-skating rink and a 22-lane bowling alley. Another Turkish firm, TAV Construction is working with Athens-based Consolidated Contractors Co. to finish the revamping of Tripoli’s international airport by next March. The project includes two new terminals that can handle 20 million passengers annually. Marlton, New Jersey’s Hill International is also contracted for about $8 billion to manage the design of 25 new university campuses. Top international hotel chains Intercontinental, Sheraton and Marriott will soon open their doors for the first time in Tripoli as Libya looks to draw more businessmen in and tap the tourist market with its beaches and Roman ruins. Other projects include introducing 4G wireless services into the country and building a high-speed rail-link along the Mediterranean coast between Sirte and Benghazi, a distance of about 310 miles (500 kilometers). Future plans envision the General Motors-built trains running straight across from Tunisia to Egypt. Gene Cretz, the U.S.’s first ambassador to Libya in 36 years, said the nation is keen to have American companies return because “our companies tend to go beyond the investment … to provide capacity building.” But he said the Libyans have cautioned U.S. firms about doing business there. The advice: “‘They can’t come to hit and run. We want them to stay and help us. We want technology transfer and capacity building,’” he said. ___ AP Business Writer Tarek El-Tablawy contributed to this report from Cairo. Other popular stories on Yahoo!: • Jail using heat-ray device on inmates • Immigrants turn to the ocean to enter U.S. • Video: Katrina hero, five years later Follow Yahoo! News on Twitter , become a fan on Facebook

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OTTAWA (AFP) – A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world’s largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta , an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space . Researcher Jean Thie said Wednesday he used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 850 metres (2,800 feet) long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park . Average beaver dams in Canada are 10 to 100 metres long, and only rarely do they reach 500 metres. First discovered in October 2007, the gigantic dam is located in a virtually inaccessible part of the park south of Lac Claire, about 190 kilometres (120 miles) northeast of Fort McMurray . Construction of the dam likely started in the mid-1970s, said Thie, who made his discovery quite by accident while tracking melting permafrost in Canada’s far north. “Several generations of beavers worked on it and it’s still growing,” he told AFP in Ottawa. Mike Keizer, spokesman for the park, said rangers flew over the heavily forested marshlands last year to try to “have a look.” They found significant vegetation growing on the dam itself, suggesting it’s very old, he said. “A new dam would have a lot of fresh sticks,” Keizer explained. “This one has grasses growing on it and it’s very green.” Part of the dam may have been created by naturally felled trees, and the beavers “opportunistically filled in the gaps.” Thie said he recently identified two smaller dams sprouting at either side of the main dam. In 10 years, all three structures could merge into a mega-dam measuring just short of a kilometer in length, he said. The region is flat, so the beavers would have had to build a massive structure to stem wetland water flows, Thie said, noting that the dam was visible in NASA satellite imagery from the 1990s. “It’s a unique phenomenon,” he said. ” Beaver dams are among the few animal-made structures visible from space .” North American beavers build dams to create deep, still pools of water to protect against predators, and to float food and building materials . A 652-meter structure in Three Forks in the US state of Montana previously held the record for world’s largest beaver dam. Thie said he also found evidence that beavers were repopulating old habitats after being hunted extensively for pelts in past centuries. “They’re invading their old territories in a remarkable way in Canada ,” he said. “I found huge dams throughout Canada, and beaver colonies with up to 100 of them in a square kilometer.” “They’re re-engineering the landscape,” he said.

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