Real Life

[Rasputin]

Ten very surprising things about Iran

Most TV news reports about Iran depict religious revolutionaries who promote militancy abroad and suppress human rights at home. But this is only part of the story:

1 Art-house Iranian films by such directors as Abbas Kiarostami and Mohsen Makhmalbaf wow foreign audiences. But the domestic film industry also churns out hundreds of more popular pictures. Last year's big hit The Lizard, drew the clerics' wrath for depicting a convict escaping prison disguised as a mullah. This year's hit was Girls' Dormitory, about a psychotic killer terrorising students.

2 In the form of Shia Islam practised in Iran, Muslims are allowed to enter into temporary marriages with each other, sometimes lasting only a few hours. Critics say this in effect legalises prostitution, and women who enter into these sigheh contracts are often ostracised. But the practice is defended as a legal loophole to provide inheritance rights for children who would otherwise be born out of wedlock. Sigheh websites have been set up to offer advice to prospective brides and grooms.

3 More than 3,600 Iranians have been killed in the past 25 years fighting heroin smugglers, whose main trade route to the West passes through the Islamic republic. Iran itself has a major drug problem, with more than two million addicts. The government has permitted radical measures to tackle the problem, including methadone programmes and syringe hand-outs to prevent the spread of disease.

4 Transsexuals are permitted to have sex-change operations in Iran by the decree of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini himself. The founder of the Islamic republic passed a fatwa allowing one transsexual woman to have the operation because sexual ambiguity made it impossible for her to carry out her religious duties properly. Iran now has dozens of people who have had a sex change.

5 According to the UNHCR, Iran hosts more than one million foreign refugees - more than any other country on earth. Most of these are Afghans and Iraqi Kurds, who fled their countries during the 1980s and '90s. Iran has in the past spent millions providing them with social security but in return it has acquired a huge workforce prepared to do manual labour for rock-bottom wages.
6 While official dress codes are very strict, many young Iranians delight in pushing back the boundaries of what is acceptable. Teenage girls in Tehran wear the most vestigial of see-through headscarves and tight overcoats that barely cover the bottom. This season gypsy-style scarves are in, featuring traditional Turkmen floral designs. Cosmetic surgery is all the rage, with girls proudly displaying a plaster to show their nose has recently been "fixed".

7 Skiing is a major pastime in mountainous parts of Iran, with pistes that rival those in Alpine resorts. Every winter young Iranians flock to the main slopes near Tehran, where social mores are less tightly enforced. Iran also has cricket, baseball and women's rugby teams, but football remains the most popular sport.

8 Iran has one of the only condom factories in the Middle East, and actively encourages contraception as a means of family planning. Sex education for married couples and major advertising campaigns helped Iran to slow its booming population growth.

9 Satellite television is banned in Iran, but receiver dishes sit in plain view on top of many houses. The most popular channels are run by Iranians based in Los Angeles, who broadcast Iranian pop music and a steady stream of anti-regime propaganda - though many Iranians also scoff at the radical tone taken by the stations.

10 Iran is one of the world's biggest producers of luxury foods. The country has rights to fish more sturgeon - the source of caviar - than any other Caspian Sea nation because of its extensive restocking programmes. It is also the world's biggest producer of pistachios, as well as saffron.

[Cop]

very nice thanks siamak

[jjbb]

kheili jaye taasof dareh.thanks for the info.

[Rasputin]

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker

Abbas Kiarostami is widely celebrated as one of the world's leading contemporary filmmakers. His recognizable, personal style of filmmaking is permeated by a forward-thinking, innovative spirit that has placed his work at the vanguard of filmmaking—all the while carving a place for Iranian cinema in modern film history. Kiarostami's oeuvre is distinguished as much by its ethical and philosophical core as by its aesthetic purity and focus on the humanity of ordinary people. His cinema is one of questions and questioning; his films are almost all initiated as a question or a quest—one, Where Is the Friend's House? (1987), even reflects this in its title. The characters in Kiarostami's films, most often played by non-actors, endlessly ask questions—of each other, of themselves, of the director. The director, in turn, embeds questions within the films themselves—of genre; definitions; limits (documentary? fiction?); and filmic space (what is inside/outside of cinema?). Furthermore, there is a constant questioning of the director's own authority and of the veracity of what appears on the screen. Kiarostami's is a cinema of journeys and discovery, in which he frequently undercuts any narrative impulse by creating ellipses, or disrupts the sound-image continuum in order to thwart expectations, often to shocking or frustrating effect. This strategy complements the director's aim of actively engaging the viewer in a way that beautifully augments the captivating emotional effect of these masterful works.

All of Kiarostami's works have an elusive yet immensely powerful poetic quality, one that develops as questions asked in a blunt, straightforward manner evolve into much larger ethical and philosophical inquiries. This characteristic is present from the early shorts and features of somewhat didactic origins—many screened for the first time in the U.S. in this exhibition—and in later works, wherein such lyricism subtly supports the basic humanism that illuminates all of the director's oeuvre. All films by Abbas Kiarostami, produced in Iran, and in Farsi with English subtitles, unless otherwise noted.

This first U.S. retrospective of Abbas Kiarostami's works on film and in digital media is complemented with an installation of Five in the Media Gallery and an accompanying exhibition at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

Organized by Jytte Jensen, Curator, Department of Film, and Klaus Biesenbach, Chief Curator, Department of Media, in collaboration with The Iranian Art Foundation.

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker is co-organized by The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, in collaboration with the Iranian Art Foundation. We are grateful for the cooperation of Kanoon (Tehran), Farabi (Tehran), MK2 (Paris), Celluloid Films (Paris), Zeitgeist Films, New Yorker Films, and Miramax Films.


The exhibition is made possible by The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art and by Sheila and Hassan Nemazee with additional support from Herb and Simin Allison, the Persepolis Foundation, Nazgol and Kambiz Shahbazi, The 42nd Street Fund, and Iara Lee and George Gund III.

[Rasputin]

Perhaps the most influential Iranian director to ever enter the international filmmaking scene, Abbas Kiarostami is a living icon and a person I have admired for a long time. With his multi-media exhibition going on at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kiarostami has a chance to showcase a complete history of his work as an artist in film and imagery in what promises to be a successful and eye-opening exhibition.

With short films, photography and feature length pieces, the exhibition dates all the way back to works from 1970. Kiarostami classics such as The Taste of Cherry, which won the Cannes Palm d’Or Award in 1997, as well as new films will be shown. Premieres include such shorts as Rug (10 min) and Tickets (25 min). Having been praised by fellow filmmakers Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and Jean-Luc Godard, this visionary has always tried to tackle life’s simple questions. Kiarostami’s recognizable style that has been innovative and cutting edge for so many years, could not have found a better home for display.

I had a chance to chat with him in the Media Gallery of the Museum of Modern Art as his incredible exhibition debuted on March 1st.

First I wanted to thank you for giving us a few moments to sit with you. Please tell us about the exhibition that you have going on right now at the Modern in New York.

Abbas Kiarostami: Well, first of all, I had many suggestions over three years ago to have this type of exhibition where different types of my work can be presented. The question was how to do it, when and where. With the renovations and movement of art between the Modern and PS1, it took some time but we were finally able to pull it together. Today was the first day that I saw it and hope that many artists can benefit from it.



PM: Do you like what you have seen here at the Modern?


AK: I have not seen the whole thing but the images are being displayed in PS1 and the attendance and acceptance of the audience will determine how successful this sort of thing can be.



PM: How does the average American audience react to your films?

AK: This is not my first time of course. I have been doing this for twenty years – not just my films but other well known filmmakers have also paved the way. There are so many film festivals and opportunities for non–Iranians to benefit from this kind of work.

What is certainly interesting for me is that they seem to have a very different view of Iran, which seems to be a bit unknown, perhaps lost and hidden. I was looking at the five films on display here and I was thinking that with the American viewpoint, and with everything that is going on in the media about Iran, these are very different perspectives on the country. They are not similar to what is known and the audience will have to believe one image over the other certainly.

I am not sure which they will believe over the other but if as artists we can break the usual mold and change the people’s views from just that one angle, then this is important. Then we have done something of value. Even if that breakage is to make them believe in something that is not true, it starts a process. We have to remember that no one can judge another person; that we certainly cannot judge not only another person, but a whole country or a whole nation.



PM: The concept of believing in your story seems to be very important to you. Can you tell us why this is important when one tells a story?

AK: But of course. A piece of work has to be believable. That is how I watch a movie. I have to first believe it. This belief does not mean that the story has to be real or true. For example, an animation is not real but you still believe it. Or a science fiction film, you forget two minutes into the film that this is not real and you engage in it. This is the contract that you get into with the filmmaker when you agree to watch the film. But just like in life, where I don’t like lies, I don’t like them in art either. Now, if I agree to watch, and believe the film, the next question would be is the film in accordance to what I think, what I know, what I like. But belief has to come first. We believe Fellini and others and that is a contract we make with them. Second is whether we like it or not. Whether we want it or not.

PM: Cars seem to have such a central role in your films and your own life. Can you talk to me about that?

AK: I am not trying to promote any car companies or oil companies or the use of gas. I use cars as an intimate space for a person because it is a very closed space. In this museum for example, with all this open space, there is a different feeling. I prefer using the camera is this type of way, in a fixed form in the car, for instance, because then we have options. What I portray in the background, with a moving car, different views, angles, lighting, it keeps it very attractive and pleasing to the eye. Or if you take the example of a conversation between two people, that same dialogue would have a harder time taking place in a home. I have many reasons. I have a film 10 on Ten, where I have spoken at length about the car.



PM: What are your views on life and death? How do you use these themes in your film and what is your personal view?

AK: As long as there is life, there is not point talking about death. I may have eluded to death in my films but I am not trying to promote it or remind any one of it. Death comes to each of us when it comes, at its own time. My intention has always been to focus on life and show that we need to live life more seriously, more fully and more sweetly. Certainly in Persian literature there are enough references to this; our daily activities have to be treated with care and we are reminded of that.

PM: What sort of interaction have you had with Americans who don’t know too much about Iran. What do they ask you and what do you find unusual?

AK: I had not been here since September 11th. But there is no difference. The whole world is the same. Maybe they look at Iran from a distance with some skepticism, and there are misunderstandings, some of which we are responsible for as well. But with the work that we do, we have to create an environment, where they get to know another Iranian. I don’t mean myself – I mean the ones in my films. We show them nature scenes in Iran, the vast countryside and perhaps provide a different image for them on Iran. I think that is one of our greatest responsibilities, to introduce our realities to them.



PM: Our time is running out. Thank you very much. Can I ask about your favorite things, like what you like to eat, drink and where you prefer to live?

AK: I eat when I am hungry, I like all kinds of food, and I like to drink water. I love Tehran, I am very happy there.