Page 30 - aruba-today-20171111

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Saturday 11 November 2017

Iran’s first Oscar submission

directed by woman causes stir

By AMIR VAHDAT Abyar acknowledges she nomination for “Breath.”
Associated Press made an anti-war film. Art can be a dangerous
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A “The only thing that could profession in Iran and film-
movie about a young girl destroy her fantasies and makers have fallen into
whose fantasy world helps imagination was war,” trouble before.
her escape the hard re- Abyar said of Bahar’s char- Award-winning Iranian film-
alities of growing up in the acter. “This film shows us maker Keywan Karimi was
countryside near Tehran in the obscene face of war released in April, after serv-
the aftermath of the 1979 that we should avoid, this ing about five months of his
In this Saturday, Oct. 21, 2017 photo, Iranian film director Narges
Abyar gives an interview to The Associated Press at her home, Islamic Revolution is Iran’s is what politicians won’t tell year-long sentence over
in Tehran, Iran. first-ever submission for the you,” she added. his work, though he es-
Associated Press Academy Awards’ foreign Bahar refuses to attend caped the 223 lashes that
film directed by a woman. Quranic classes, alleging were part of his sentence.
But not everyone is cele- her teacher was being He later told the AP that he
brating. mean to her. Her uncle doesn’t know whether he’ll
The mixed reaction to later teaches the girl how make movies again in the
Narges Abyar’s film “Na- to read the holy book — Islamic Republic.
fas,” or “Breath,” shows though she prefers another International politics also
how art cuts across Iranian that she found despite a comes into play in Iran’s
politics, both at home and plot she cannot grasp, a cinema.
abroad. story about girls being kid- While the Farabi Cinema
Hard-liners have criticized napped and put in a house Foundation routinely sub-
the movie, and it remains full of prostitutes. mits films to the Academy
unclear whether Abyar and Not surprisingly, the film’s Awards, tensions rise and
her husband would even topics have proven contro- ebb between Iran and the
be able to get a visa to at- versial for Iran’s hard-liners U.S. in the years since the
tend the Oscars in March who describe the Iran-Iraq 1979 revolution and take-
under President Donald war in religious terms as the over of the U.S. Embassy in
Trump’s travel bans. Nomi- “Holy Defense” of the Shiite Tehran.
nations for the Oscars will power from dictator Sad- While tensions appeared
be announced in January. dam Hussein’s Sunni-domi- to ease slightly under Presi-
Yet the 47-year-old director nated government. dent Barack Obama and
and writer Abyar remains They have unleashed criti- with the 2015 nuclear deal,
confident in the power of cism on Abyar, despite the Trump has taken a much
art to bridge cultural and fact that her first film, “Shiar harder line than his prede-
political divides. 143” or “Track 143,” earned cessor. Iran has been on
“Cinema, culture and art her hard-liners’ praise for fo- every iteration of Trump’s
do not recognize any bor- cusing on the role of moth- travel ban predominantly
der, but in fact bring hu- ers during the Iran-Iraq war. targeting Muslim-majority
manity closer together,” “This movie is showing ex- nations. Iran also has been
she told The Associated actly what our enemies in removed from the U.S.
Press in a recent interview. the West want to see,” said green card lottery as well.
“Breath” focuses on Bahar, hard-line cleric Ahmad Last year, Iranian director
a lively girl whose asthmat- Alamolhoda, an ally of Su- Asghar Farhadi won his sec-
ic father is bringing her and preme Leader Ayatollah Ali ond Oscar with his film “The
her siblings up on his own, Khamenei. Salesman,” but declined
with the help from the chil- Gen. Mohammed Reza to attend the award cer-
dren’s religious grandmoth- Naghdi, a senior com- emony because of Trump’s
er. mander of Iran’s powerful travel ban. But even he
The film shows the rapid paramilitary Revolutionary faces criticism from hard-
changes that hit Iran af- Guard, offered a similar liners and has been work-
ter the Islamic Revolution, view. ing on his next film outside
and later, as Scud missiles “The West is already of the country.
fall, Iraq’s invasion of Iran spreading enough nega- For Abyar, she and her hus-
and the start of the ruinous tive propaganda against band would attend the
eight-year war. us, so we shouldn’t spend awards if they are granted
Parts of the film take place our taxes on such a film,” visas, she said, though she
in Bahar’s imagination as Naghdi said, citing that didn’t hold back from criti-
she tries to escape the the state-run Farabi Cin- cizing Trump herself.
hardship around her. ema Foundation submitted “We should go for a lan-
“Don’t let her read so “Breath” for the Oscar. guage that brings nations
much. She’ll go crazy,” the Iran’s moderate President closer together, not the
grandmother tells Bahar’s Hassan Rouhani, now in his language of hatred or the
dad in a scene shown in second term in office, has one that creates a gap be-
the film’s trailer. promised to increase wom- tween nations,” she said.
“Granny is right,” Bahar en’s participation in film, “This is a thing that is hap-
later muses. “You go crazy though it isn’t clear wheth- pening in the U.S. and we
when you read books a er his pledge helped tip the see that the art community
lot.” scales and win Abyar the does not like this.”q