Film Review – Desert Dancer

Since it deals with the arts and the primal release of dance, it’s easy to forgive the broadness of “Desert Dancer.” It’s not a nuanced picture, but an arms-flailing identification of suffering and threat, taking audiences into the lion’s den of Iran in 2009, where political change was on the verge of becoming a reality, frightening those weaned on iron-fisted authority. Aiming to become a sensitive understanding of dancer Afshin Ghaffarian’s true story, “Desert Dancer” manages to find pockets of disturbance that matter, encouraging a few honest beats of distress that aren’t smashed by director Richard Raymond’s hammer-like interpretation of antagonism. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com