CSM:Cinema Vérité: Better Than CIA
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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.
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An alternative to ignorance about one of the most influential Mid East nations:
Take in an Iranian film.
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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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