As recently documented in Burma VJ, the Burmese revolution and fight against repression was fought with something more powerful than sticks and stones. The same pocket-sized video cameras that the brave people of Iran are currently using to document the aftermath of an election with gross irregularities and the gross misconduct of the current government. It’s with that same camera in hand spirit that we would like give praise to Iranian New Wave and current generation of filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, the Makhmalbaf family, Jafar Panahi, Bahman Ghobadi, Majid Majidi and to a certain extent Marjane Satrapi who have been foreshadowing and detailing the difficult uphill internal struggle in their homeland. Such films as Panahi’s Offside, Samira Makhmalbaf ‘s At Five in the Afternoon and most recently, Ghobadi’s No One Knows About Persian Cats are films that have, not surprisingly, ever been allowed to be shown in their own back yards. The good news is that world cinema has embraced such films and filmmakers and as we speak, what I’m worried that if the crack down becomes more severe (they’ve already jailed some members of Iran’s filmmaking community) that it might take more time for these filmmakers to address the effects of the election, although on the other hand, I have a feeling that their tenacity will be victor over censorship.
The Orange of the Week goes to this extremely talented grouping of Iranian filmmakers who have painted pertinent portraits of Iran’s tumultuous past, present and here’s hoping that they’ll be detailing Iran’s shaky future much sooner than later.
