"Lawrence of Arabia" meets "North By Northwest"!
- "Iranian filmmaker Esmael Barari's "Dead Heat Under the Shrubs" is a "Lawrence of Arabia" meets "North By Northwest."
- "Dead Heat under the Shrubs" has the simplest of plots, so the magic isn't found in the story but the sheer tension and the stark vistas of the desert. Barari's cinematography bathes the dawning desert in a gentle mystery entirely at odds with the frantic chase being played out.
- Iranian filmmaker parlays Hitchcockian pursuit. By Tim Ryan