Cinema Vérité: Better Than CIA
Felixth...@hotmail.com
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.
An alternative to
ignorance about one
of the most influential
Mid East nations:
Take in an Iranian
film.
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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Druid days
Iranians have tape stretched across their mouths. That is a FACT. Who'd watch
a movie from such? Not I.
The best outside of America in my opinion was Hong Kong before the return to
China.
***************************
Câinii latrã, caravana trece.
Make A Site! http://members.aol.com/druiddays/makeasite.html
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Felixth...@hotmail.com
In article <199805192230...@ladder03.news.aol.com>,
drui...@aol.com (Druid days) wrote:
>
> Iranians have tape stretched across their mouths. That is a FACT. Who'd
watch
Of course, you'd know better than the author, 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.
Right.