The Last Street of Tehran

A Moving Picture of Tehran( A review on Granaz Moussavi's "My Tehran for Sale")

2011-03-24T11:55:00.000-07:00

Unlike many other Iranian award-winning movies favoured by the western festivals, exploring either the rural life ,ethnic minorities, illiteracy, tribal conflicts or poverty, Granaz Moussavi's "My Tehran for Sale" is a unique tale revealing all the secrets and mysteries hidden behind the scene and it can be taken as a genuine and unswerving picture of this tumultuous, contradictory and hectic lifestyle in Tehran conflicting the traditions of the past and the principles imposed by the authorities.
Alienating the cliches of Iranian films, Granaz Moussavi takes the initiative to disclose the drak cryptic undercovered story, eliminating the wrong image and illusions made by other filmmakers shadowing what really exists here.Honestly speaking I have never seen northern Tehran pictured by western news agencies.Life in northern Tehran is posh, expensive,trendy and full of contradictions.Girls and boys racing cars, underground nightclubs and flashy , heavy make- up worn by young girls ,... compared to European standards people sound really loud here!
The image shown so far and the western camera has been accustomed to , no longer exists in the wealthy areas of Tehran where I live!
This couragous movie is opening a path to the reality behind the scene, in a policed society life has been watched under the surveillance camera, your personal phone call has been eavesdropped by the telecommunication centre, your artistic work has been scrutinised and banned, people stalking and spying on one another for the sake of benefit they might take....
Stealthily and sneakily crawling into underground nightclubs , young boys and girls go on dating , experience sex at a very early age, practise whatsoever's been heated and controversial in the west.
The leading actress, Marzieh Vafamehr does quite an impressive job.Irreconcilable with her family traditions, challenging the guidlines dictated by the art and culture ministry, she has been drifted apart from the prevailing lifestyle. She practises perfomance art, sounds peculiar but been favourited by a group of avant-garde artists though unlicenced and questioned by drama administration in Iran.
But the tragic life of asylum seekers is nothing new. Not a new story, this has been what Iranians made quite a reputation over, during this thirty years of Islamic regime.
The sudden rush of immigration, brain drain, the issues over political refugees has done enough harm to the society's welfare.
The film implies the current and contemporary Farsi spoken in the streets of Tehran mainly by the youth, a combination of slangs and colloquial terms defying from the norms taught at schools or advertised on state TV or mass media.Some phrases and words coined and taken from high-tech equipment manuals or cyber terms used on the internet or a jargon jumbled by a salad of English and Persian as Iranian expatriates sometimes talk...
Apart from the music , the soundtrack is a mixture of all possible sounds you might hear in Tehran including religious grieving sounds, the call for praying pronounced by mosques, continuous honking of the horns of cars,people shouting at one another , calling a taxi in the streets....
The landscape shown for several times in the film is the view from the foothills of the Alborz, the mountainous region covering the north country, what you could see from the northern neighbourhoods if you turn back...
Despite all these, the city looks vigourous, sparkling electric lamps, highrise buildings , lengthy highways shows the contrast of modern and traditional life.
The film is full of innovative momments , some frames are really gripping, the view of flowerpots overlooks from the top floor of a highrise building paralleled at a time marzieh feels quite devastated in love, a leaf dropping into the gutters while trekking in northern alleys of Tehran, the symbolic lantern which starts the film, street market with all its attractions and Marzieh's trekking on Tehran's night at the end.
Acting's quite dynamic and dramatic, a good choice of cast while Marzieh's low-pitched voice and pale complexion is interacted with Niloofar's vivacious laughter and sunny face.
The story is told through a patchwork , dialogues follow a certain rhythm, the settings are in harmony with the language used through the film, costumes, acting , accessories are all employed with one accord.

My Odyssey

2010-07-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

And how post-revolutionary Iran changed the image of things totally!!! People got used to the long lists of executions , a white shroud as a sign of voluntary death and that massive unknown graveyard with the unmarked signs of the dear ones which is called Khavaran!
I'm writing a novel based on this specific story , "The Prisoner of Yamgan Valley",... . The story develops as the woman , "Safoura" , the main character of my book takes the journey through the time and history, while she takes the steps of all the women in the past, from the ancient Persia to its darkest moments of Ghajar era,....

The State of Fear

2010-03-08T15:15:00.001-08:00

Iran in 80s was a state of fear.Music was banned, playing cards was banned, chess was banned, drinks were banned,... . Girls went to school in baggy size uniforms. The school anthem was a praying that may God add up our life to our leader Imam Khomeini, the one which was chanted everyday before classes. Teachers were scruffy and shabby and rough and they simply brainwashed children,... all fears and no love!
You couldn't wear white socks or a pink jacket ,black-clad children mourned the martyrs of Iran and Iraq war. The siren started when they all had to cramp into the basements; while coming back home you could see the ruins of houses!
T.V programmes started late in the afternoons with pictures of the lost and if you have seen them , please contact us!The sound of marching just before the news on T.V and a ceremonious singer called Ahangaran who sang grieving songs for the soldiers in the frontiers,...
No, that's not all! Those were the days!God knows how many wedding parties were bombarded and they found the bride all in blood!
Housewives started queueing early in the mornings , long queues for sugar and meat and dairy products,..
And who paid the price of lost fathers and brothers and the widows of war?....
Fears, ....it's been grown up with us!The plague which has ruined us all and we're still reacting like zombies, disable to move or protest!
That freaking nightmare keeps freezing us every time!..,

The threat of being a colony

2009-10-19T18:16:00.000-07:00

I have always thought that 1979 revolution in Iran was a trick of that damned USSR! They started a left party and by their superficial slogans they really encouraged the middle class to be in! This ruined our history! This really was a threat and thank God , Iran didn't become the second China or East bloc,... anyway , the revolution led by a religious shiite figure changed the course of history in Iran. I should say Persians were those who had been converted to Islam by force and the glory of this treasure land came to an end at that very moment!
But now is there again a sort of threat??? The threat of being a colony again !!!..Of another country or somehow!... I'm dreading it!!!!!!!!!!!

My Beloved Tehran

2009-07-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

I've Just created this weblog to make a diary ,... I would write more about my personal life and my writings .The title of the weblog is from one of my poems which you could read it on my website http://www.rosajamali.com/
And what's going on here in my country ? It's so hard to say ,.. It's been a month that I'm working on a poem about the streets of Tehran , this chesslike city which has turned to a magic zone , as I assume,..The city I've grown up in it and I've dedicated most of my poems to it , this metropolis that I love it so much , my beloved Tehran which is dissolving to dust gradually,...
So what happened to this city? What's going on then ? ... No one really knows ,...
It would be hard for me to write a report of events so I would tell the story from a different point of view, .. besides the city is changing its shape recently,..turning to a furious creature these days...!!!