“Rotten” is a short film by Alireza Mohammadi Roozbahani that, with a bitter and realistic atmosphere, takes the viewer into the world of a person on the verge of collapse. The story is about a man who is faced with a heavy past and a deteriorating relationship; a past that, like a festering wound, slowly heals and forces him to face the truth that he had been running from for a long time. A simple incident becomes the beginning of a major crisis and puts him in a position where he must choose between acceptance, denial, or sinking deeper into darkness.
The film, with its tight mise-en-scène and closed frames, reinforces the character’s sense of being trapped and mentally decaying. Cold lighting, heavy silences, and slow camera movements create the film’s raw and tense world. “Rotten” is ultimately a story of man’s confrontation with a truth that, like moisture, quietly but ruthlessly rots everything from within.