Iranian Cinema: Better than CIA...
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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR:
BOSTON - TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1998
OPINION/ESSAYS
Cinema Vérité: Better Than CIA
Henry Precht
One Iranian film is worth a thousand intelligence reports. Or, to put it
in Middle Eastern terms, two Iranian film festivals are a better bargain
than the CIA and State Department.
For years now we've been instructed, on the basis of secret information,
how terrible Iranians are. They support terrorism, threaten nuclear
devastation, and oppose Arab-Israel peace. A while back, the United
States cited Iran as a violator of human rights. That charge was dropped
when it became just too embarrassing in the context of standard Middle
Eastern behavior.
From Prime Minister Muhammad Mossadeq through the revolution to
President Muhammad Khatami's landslide election last year, US
intelligence agencies dealing in secretly acquired information have
gotten it wrong in Iran. Not so strange, then, that Europeans and others
don't agree with our assessments. Iran deeply hurt the American psyche
20 years ago. While the wound may be healing, residual bitterness, the
efforts of special interests, and secret intelligence promote a policy
of error.
Happily, there's an alternative to ignorance or despair about a country
that is potentially one of the most influential in the Middle East: Take
in an Iranian film. Despite the censorship or "guidance" of the Tehran
religious authorities, the new wave of films depicts Iran as it truly
is. In the past few months, thanks to the Sackler Gallery and
FilmFestDC, Washingtonians could see a dozen of the best products of
international prize-winning Iranian directors. The films are full of
insights and as rich in design and color as Persian carpets.
In a sense, what is happening in Iranian cinema replicates the Italian
experience after World War II. Decades of political repression, followed
by a destructive war, give way to a period of lighter control permitting
creative genius to experiment. Low-budget by necessity, often using
amateur actors, the films tell stories that seem to evolve in the
making. The grit and tinsel, crumbling plaster and marble facades, dust
and dirt, dreams and sorrows of life in Tehran are laid out in
Italian-style realism.
What do the films tell us about Iran that intelligence agencies missed?
First, the Shah never had a chance of transforming Iran into a "Great
Civilization" that would rival Germany. Second, the current rulers have
hardly a prayer of forcing the country into a rigid theocracy. Iranian
society, the films teach us, is organic, with its own rules and goals.
While there are disparities of wealth, education, ethnicity, and
morality, overriding all is the sense of community and respect accorded
to each member. Rituals of hospitality and courtesy have real meaning.
There is dignity, gentleness, generosity, and a willingness to help or
simply to let time pass that ease the burdens of deception, crime,
brutality, and poverty.
Possibly there are Iranian terrorists or mad nuclear scientists, but
they seem outside the norms of this society depicted in these films.
Those who violate the standards of society - the bicycle thief in the
bazaar or hard-line clerics after the Revolution - will find themselves
pursued by bazaaris, or chased out as in Khatami's election.
To be sure, secular authority, modern institutions, and religion have
their place in Iran. But they aren't all-controlling. A cab driver
reports the theft of his car to the police and eventually the cops find
it. In the meantime, he's relied on his own imagination and network of
contacts in an effort to track it down. A father and son turn to modern
medicine to save the paralyzed daughter, but they also pursue the
solutions of folk remedies, magic, and religion - the latter does the
job.
Neither politics nor ideology enters the lives of these characters. They
aren't fanatics. They listen, reflect on what they've heard, and act
with deliberation or short-lived emotion. A mother, against the
objection of the family, insists irrationally that her son take a second
wife. She's the only film Iranian I met I wouldn't want to negotiate
with.
Religion is shown to exert a powerful force over the lives of these
people, as may be expected in films that pass the censor. Yet, it's not
the only operative influence. The family is the dominant structure;
loyalty and love between its members are stronger than any other form of
association. Children are central to the society - central characters in
several films. Their perspicacity, unsullied wisdom, and determination
to achieve the good point up the failings of the adult world. Bear in
mind that children account for half the Iranian population. Their
pushing at traditional structures will mean problems for future rulers
as they do for the parents in the films.
In "Taste of Cherry," an old man tries to dissuade the hero from suicide
by telling him a joke. A foolish Turk, the story goes, complains that he
feels pain all over his body. Wherever he probes with his finger, he
hurts. The doctor reports his body is fine, but his finger is broken.
Perhaps there's a message here for Washington intelligence agencies:
Iran may be all right; our probing mechanisms may be broken.
In the old days, Nixon, Kissinger, and company saw Iran as one man - the
Shah; he was a good guy. Later we saw the country as another man -
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini; he was bad. Recently, policy analysis has
improved 100 per cent. We now see Iran as two men - Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei who is bad and President Khatami who is good.
The undiscovered secret of Iran is that it is in truth a land of 65
million men and women, good and bad. We need to pay attention to them.
You could meet some on the screen of your neighborhood theater.
•Henry Precht, a retired diplomat who lives in Maryland, was country
director for Iran in the State Department during the Iranian Revolution
and hostage crisis.
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