The Song of Sparrows: Honesty pays!

Here is yet another brilliant rendition of Iranian new wave by the master Iranian director, Majid Majidi. It is a typical Iranian film, sensitive with its ordinary life portrayal of a poor family. The father Karim, played intensely by Reza Naji, struggles hard to make ends meet. In the bargain, though, he loses his job in the ostrich farm, as an ostrich escapes from his care. Further, he also fractures his leg in a freak accident. However, what keeps him going and what, perhaps, helps him face life as it is, is his never compromising honesty and his deep love for his family and children. He is unsophisticated; but Karim can strike a deep chord. He reminds us of Ricci of De Sica’s Bicycle Thief. However, the only difference is that while Ricci is driven to sin in the face of helplessness, Karim fights helplessness with determination and hope.

Director: Majid Majidi

Film Clip

Majidi, as usual, gives masterly touch to this film as well. The journey motif that is a characteristic feature of most of Iranian films is predominant in this film too, where we see Karim journeying physically and metaphorically into places and circumstances which he would otherwise not have intended. Some of the shots in the film are just breathtaking. For example the splatter of fish in the tub as it is dropped by the children; or another shot of Karim carrying a door in the vastness of a field. This sensitive film will go a long way in re affirming the beauty that life is. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

The Father: 'killing' a step parent!

One wonders how Iran could produce such wonderful films. The answer perhaps lies in the fact that the limitations posed by the state on film makers have been converted into strengths of the film industry in Iran. Majid Majidi is one such director who can be termed as one of the most creative geniuses of film language.

Director: Majid Majidi

Film clip

His 1996 film The Father (Pedar) is a fine example of this. As usual, his themes are very simple. But the way he puts these themes into the film language, creating visual images in each frame, is just inimitable. The story of The Father is indeed not so much of a father, but of a son Mehrolloah. He has lost his real father in an accident and has difficulties accepting his step father whom his mother has married without his knowledge. This is because Mehrollah has been away working to support the family – his mother and three sisters – after the death of his father. Once he comes to know of the entry of the step father into the family, he wants to kill him as Mehrollah thinks that he is a bad man.

What happens in his pursuit of devising plans to kill his father is indeed surprises you and thus it is best not describe it here, lest the pleasure of a visual experience be taken away from the readers who would like to watch the film. However, the way Majidi unravels the true selves of each of the characters – especially the son and the step father – is very unique. There is symbolism, as usual; but it is not a forced symbolism as in many contemporary Indian off-beat films. Metaphors and symbols just emerge as the story unfolds. That is possible only when a director allows the visuals to flow rather than intrude and impose violence to the natural flow.

A film becomes an eternal piece of art only when every shot in it is in the right place and in the right balance. The Father is one such film!

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Stoning of Soraya M: subjugation of feminine

In a patriarchal society the subjugation of women is unfortunately considered normal and a given. Matters become worse if a religious sanction is given to it. In other words, religion is brought in to licence the cruelty of the male supremacy.

While such male dominance is prevalent in all religions across the globe, it is more pronounced in Islam, especially in theocratic countries.

‘Stoning of Sorya M’, a 2008 Persian-English film, directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh, is a brutal portrayal of such male dominance at its worst. The film shocks you beyond measures, not just by certain gory visuals, but by the repugnant male ego that tries to destroy a helpless and relatively weak female. 

Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh

Film Clip

The film is based on a real life incident written by French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam about the stoning of Soraya apparently for indulging in adultery, all in the name of religion. While the film portrays powerfully the dominant masculine and its cruelty, very many questions remain unanswered.

For example, for the record, even if the woman is caught in adultery, can she be implicated in her absence? Can the male decide what is good or bad for the female? Can it really be true that the male is more equal than the female when both complement each other?

While stoning of Soraya is the depiction of brutal execution of a ‘gulity’ woman, a practice apparently present even to this day in Iran, such brutalities – both physical and mental – take place on a daily basis against women all over the world. The attempt is not just to subjugate women, but to suppress the feminine itself. There is a scene in the film where the elder son of Soraya admonishes the younger one who is saddened by the fact that his mother has to die. He is told: “Grow up to be a man.” In other words, this elder son and many sons like him will grow up to be just that, nurturing false male ego to torment and torture their wives and daughters. They will grow up with a misplaced notion that anything feminine is inferior to the masculine.

The world would definitely have been a better place, if the feminine was recognised and given its due by a world that thinks it thrives on male supremacy.

The two main female characters in the film Soraya and Zahra played respectively by Mozhan Marno and Shohreh Aghdashloo have given a brilliant performance. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ