Some good things about the movie “A Separation”… It is dramatic even though nothing extraordinary happens, a tribute to the filmmakers (I think it is much more challenging to make a movie that is realistic than one in which amazing stuff occurs). The characters spend the entire movie enmeshed in the Iranian legal system, which seems to be a lot more efficient than ours and perhaps just about as effective and fair. The judge, parties, and witnesses interact in a cramped office, not in an august courtroom. Generally speaking, there are no lawyers. The judge asks questions himself and tries to figure out who is most credible.
Given the extent to which Iran is demonized here in the U.S., it is helpful to see a movie in which Iranians live more or less as we do. Husbands and wives argue. Aging parents need to be cared for. Children study. People get stuck in traffic or wait for buses.
There are some big issues explored in the movie, but they are presented in the context of fairly small events.
Wikipedia says that the movie was made for $500,000 in Iran. If so, that’s a pretty damning comment on Hollywood.
It also points up the opportunity for good indie productions. Part of the problem is getting into the channels for marketing theatrical distribution, but with the Web such films ought to be able to leverage success in initial releases to select groups to obtain the needed funds.
>The judge asks questions himself and tries to figure out who is most credible.
Actually the guy you referring to is an Investigator. His job is to do the preliminary investigations and make the case ready for the judge. If you’re looking for a judge in the movie he is the invisible guy in the first and last scene who asks questions from Nader and Simin.
I think it serves well to show the separation between Iran the government and Iran the people. The Iranian government is certainly demonized, and mostly rightly so, but I don’t think we hear much about being opposed to the Iranian people. The Green movement was praised pretty highly in the US media, if I recall correctly.
I’ve heard a few segments on NPR, I believe, showing the life of the Iranian people, especially in Tehran. Underground bars and rock clubs, recording studios hidden in basements, secretive ways to get around the government’s internet censorship.
I feel like the Iranian people, in the end, are portrayed as a society reasonably similar to our own, under a government that is trying to force them back to the tribal days of the Middle East 1500 years ago.
“Given the extent to which Iran is demonized here in the U.S., it is helpful to see a movie in which Iranians live more or less as we do”
First, it’s not the Iranian people who are “demonized”, it’s the Iranian regime. This Iranian regime is responsible, among other things, for setting up public ceremonies, involving tens of thousands of Iranians, during which Israel (the entire country, not just its political regime) is vilified. The same Iranian regime is responsible for suppressing any attempts of political protests of the Iranian students.
Second, the fact that the average Iranian lives “more or less like we do” is a very poor argument for supporting the implied idea that we’re “equals” and that we should no longer “demonize” them. As you can probably imagine, the Germans were living “more or less” like the Dutch or the Brits in the 1930s, the Russians were also living similar to, say, the Poles in the 1950s through the 1970s and so on. There were key differences though below this surface of normal life and these terrible things have unfortunately been widespread enough throughout those populations to allow for horrible things to happen.
Peter,
Damn right we’re not equal with you Americans. Unlike US, Iran hasn’t invaded any country nor has started a war in the last 100 years. Can you the same thing about your country?
War crimes, torture, extraordinary renditions, impriosonment without due process, reckless and illegal invasion of soverign countries, deployment of mercernaries known as hired murderors (Blackwater) and so on and so forrth have all become the lingua franca of political lives of Americans.
Do you really think we look up to Americans?
@Peter Laurie
“. . . these terrible things have unfortunately been widespread enough throughout those populations to allow for horrible things to happen”
It does not mean that such ‘horrible things’ happen only, and are lurking underneath only in non-European societies. Right? One should probably judge oneself *once in a while*, at least — before adding fuel to the fire.
And, btw, the ‘opposite’ party says the same thing — “we respect the American people, but don’t like the government”.
And yet people are partners in the activities of a more or less popular government. What happened to Japan, e.g., reflects on the values held both by a state and its subjects.
Self-accountability prevents self-delusion — and it should prevent the urge to demonize alien entities.
Bahram,
Sorry if I offended you, it was not my intention at all to annoy anyone. Perhaps I had a poor choice of words – English is not my first language. Also, I’m not an American.
Please note that I used the word “equals” in quotes because I was trying to explain that the fact that your daily routines (taking your kids to school, waiting for a bus etc) are similar to your neighbor’s doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re as harmless as your neighbor. Many very smart Western people have been fooled by the apparent normalcy of life in the Soviet Union, during a very dark period (1930s-1950s). There were things they did not see when they visited – they didn’t see how children and friends and spouses and neighbors were informing authorities of “suspect activities” of their close ones, which resulted in completely innocent people being thrown in jail or forced labor camps, without a trial. Sure, it was a diabolical political regime who was doing these terrible things but they were working hand in hand with average citizens who were willingly supporting them. As I mentioned in my original post, this type of societal cancer has been encountered before, in Nazi Germany, Communist China and so on.
The current president of Iran was elected by a pretty solid majority of the Iranian people. I don’t believe it’s necessary to enumerate here the many
[continued]
The current president of Iran was elected by a pretty solid majority of the Iranian people. I don’t believe it’s necessary to enumerate here the many violations of the basic human rights, the crack downs on political opponents and other completely unacceptable behaviors of the current political regime. I strongly believe that, unfortunately, too many Iranians are supporting or at least tolerating this and this is simply not right.
Should you be looking up to the Americans? I hope you will someday. Because it was the American people who have put pressure on the American government to clean up their act and to stop doing the things they disagreed with. And you know what? The government didn’t put them in jail for this.
Osman,
“It does not mean that such ‘horrible things’ happen only, and are lurking underneath only in non-European societies. Right? One should probably judge oneself *once in a while*, at least — before adding fuel to the fire.”
Please read the original post again – I gave the examples of two European countries. No society is immune to these things, unfortunately.
“Wikipedia says that the movie was made for $500,000 in Iran.”
I would imagine the price-quality curve for movies is pretty steep at the low end and pretty shallow at the high end. I’m sure you can make a much better movie for $100,000 than for $10,000. It is not clear that a movie made for $100,000,000 is going to be superior in any meaningful way to one made for $10,000,000.