“I’ve inherited this courage from the women of my land, who for years have been living their lives, every day with resistance… I will stay, I will not quit, I will stand with the families of the prisoners and murdered and demand their rights. I will fight for my home, I will pay whatever it takes to stand up for my rights, and most importantly: I believe in what we are building together today.”
— Alidoosti’s Instagram post, before she was arrested
It’s the birthday of Taraneh Alidoosti, one of the most famous actresses in Iran, who was arrested in December 2022, and incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison, where they put political prisoners. Her last two posts were of 1. a photo of her standing in public without a headscarf, holding a sign that said, in the Kurdish language, “Women Life Freedom” and 2. a post condemning the first execution, that of Mohsen Shekari.
Her arrest was significant. She was so well-known. She had a new film coming out. Her international profile is high.
I followed Taraneh on Instagram. She often posted about what was going on in Iran. It was clear where she stood on all the important issues. What was different was she was doing so from within the borders of the country. So many of Alidoosti’s contemporaries have chosen to leave Iran, and live in exile. She stayed. Think about her having 8 million followers. Julia Roberts has 10 million. That’s how famous Taraneh is. I feel it’s important to underline, particularly for Western-focused people, or for people who don’t watch foreign films, or whatever. No judgment, but there are MASSIVE stars in the world who have never set foot in Hollywood. Alidoosti is one of them.
The regime knew her arrest would make international news. Not only do they not care, the headlines are the point. Alidoosti was eventually released, and she looked thin and wan, albeit happy, in the pictures of her in the arms of her family when she got out. The problem persists.
More after the jump:
That’s Alidoosti in her breakthrough role in 2002’s “I’m Taraneh, 15”, where she plays a teenage girl forced into marriage. The marriage breaks up after 4 months, the husband moves to Germany, and the girl finds herself pregnant with no husband. She decides – against enormous familial and social pressure – to have the baby and raise it herself.
Alidoosti has been doing steady excellent work in film and television for almost 20 years, sometimes in films which get international attention, particularly her collaborations with Asghar Farhadi (Fireworks Wednesday, About Elly and the Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Film, The Salesman). When The Salesman was nominated for Best Foreign Film, she made a public statement saying she would boycott the ceremony because of 45’s “travel ban”, i.e. Muslim ban, don’t get it twisted. She was pilloried for this by the usual suspects (what does it feel like to be so PREDICTABLE on a daily basis?) and celebrated in others. THIS is “using your platform” for the greater good and spreading awareness.
Taraneh Alidoosti and Houman Seyyedi, “Fireworks Wednesday”
I first discovered her when I saw Asghar Farhadi’s Fireworks Wednesday at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2007. (I reviewed for Slant). (Fireworks Wednesday was how I discovered Farhadi as well as Hediyeh Tehrani). I was so TAKEN with Alidoosti’s portrayal of a traditional woman, wearing a traditional chador (the chador becomes a plot point later), getting embroiled in the dissolution of a city-slicker couple’s marriage.(You could see this kind of dynamic operating in Farhadi’s international smash hit Oscar winner A Separation too, my review here.)
Taraneh Alidoosti, “Fireworks Wednesday”
There’s a mischievous glimmer in Alidootsi’s eyes, joy unfettered, open to life, but … you worry for her, too. She seems so innocent.
Since then I’ve been following her. Farhadi’s About Elly was made in 2009. I think it had a brief release over here, but if you didn’t see it then, you couldn’t see it at all. It never made it to DVD. For years I was unable to see it, and felt urgently I needed to see it – particularly after A Separation. About Elly was a Holy Grail kind of film for me since I had so loved Fireworks Wednesday and was bowled over by A Separation. Finally, after A Separation won Best Foreign Film – as well as every other award on the planet – About Elly came to America. I went to a screening of it with my friend Farran. She just reminded me that the screening was sold out, no room at the inn, and we somehow finagled our way in. We both felt the same: WE MUST SEE THIS. We have been thwarted for YEARS and this might be our only chance! We were absolutely STUNNED by About Elly (I wrote about it – at length – here).
About Elly
If Asghar Farhadi shot About Elly in 2008, then he followed it up with A Separation, released in 2011. By my count, that’s two stone-cold masterpieces back to back. I actually think About Elly is the superior film, and I say that thinking A Separation is as good as it gets.
About Elly (in which Alidoosti plays the title character) is not exactly a remake of Michelangelo Antonioni’s eerie L’Avventura, but L’Avventura is its organizing principle and inspiration. Like A Bigger Splash is a “remake” of The Swimming Pool. It’s basically the same story as L’Avventura: A group of city-slickers go on a weekend vacation together. One of the women brings along her kids’ schoolteacher, a young woman named Elly. Elly is clearly from a more traditional background than the others. She has had to lie to her mother to let her go on this trip. Still. Elly relaxes into the big group, or at least tries to. They make her feel welcome, even though they gossip and whisper behind her back. It’s a weird vibe.
The murderer’s row of talented Iranian actors in About Elly, including Golshifteh Farahani, eventually “banned” from Iranian cinema for not wearing a head scarf on the red carpet. She now lives in exile. You’ll remember her from Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson”
Undercurrents seethe in About Elly‘s first section. Beneath all the laughter and camaraderie are disturbing ebbs and flows. And then Elly vanishes. Seemingly off the face of the earth. What happened? Where is she? Is she lost in the crashing surf Just like the woman in L’Avventura? How can a person just VANISH without a trace?
Alidoosti is haunting in About Elly, mostly because she plays Elly’s joy and sense of possibility.
Taraneh Alidoosti, About Elly
She knows she’s risking trouble at home by going out – alone – with this group of less-than-traditional adults, none of whom are her family members. But she goes anyway. There’s maybe sort of kind of a possibility that this is a matchmaking trip, as well. There will be a single guy present (the to-die-for Shahab Hosseini, who was also in A Separation) and so maybe … possibly … if they get to know each other, something could happen? Elly is shy about this, but seems open to it, or at least her behavior is interpreted as open, but she’s troubled too. You can see shadows of uneasiness float across her face, but then she cracks a smile to cover it up. This woman is living under a very dangerous “regime” at home. You can feel it. Would they not allow her to marry a man of her own choosing? Would they be so scandalized at the thought of her just meeting a man by herself out there in the world that they would punish her, maybe even kill her? She never divulges any of this but it’s all on her face.
There’s a scene where Elly flies a kite, running up and down the beach.
Taraneh Alidoosti, About Elly
We don’t know Elly’s backstory here, we won’t know it until much later in the film. She’s an unknown. A blank. And yet she is the focus of this gossipy pushy group of friends. Taraneh Alidoosti has to SUGGEST what is going on without language. Elly’s uneasiness is palpable and yet time and time again it is either ignored or misunderstood. She’s so very alone. The friends are all giddy with their matchmaking, and although she seems open to it, she’s also uncomfortable with the feeling that so much focus is being put on her by this group of giggling adults she doesn’t know. Nobody notices. Or they interpret her behavior wrong. She’s “standoffish”. She’s “shy” (and in this group, that’s a bad thing). Farhadi’s stock-in-trade: humans’ misunderstanding each other as they try to read between the lines – and get everything wrong..
The flying the kite sequence is an example of a masterful symbiotic collaboration between director and actor. The filmmaking disturbs us and yet what we see is Elly shaking off her (as we learn later) considerable troubles and enjoying herself. But is she enjoying herself, really? Even her eventual whoops of exhilaration and triumphant giggles – the kite is airborne – have undercurrents of despair: her joy is struggling against something. Farhadi’s filmmaking in the kite sequence – the jagged handheld, where the and Elly is all you see, the camera struggling to even capture what is going on – is clearly front and center, the dominating force of the sequence, and therefore it may dominate the attention of the scene. It’s the kind of camera work that tells the story. Okay. But put that aside please and focus on what Alidoosti is playing, the levels that are present for the character. She’s so in sync with the camera’s energy and intention: she and the camera are one – and she is also one with what the scene will mean, ultimately, in the larger arc of the story. The first time you see it, you feel intensely worried and you don’t even know why. Alidoosti is not just playing joy and freedom, in order to “highlight” the loss that follows. No. That would be a cliche. Watch closely. She’s still a mystery to us here, but to an astute observer – as opposed to the group she’s with, all of whom have an agenda – she’s telling us everything. Layers of the onion are pulled back over the rest of the film and you learn just how much this young woman was dealing with. How much everything was costing her.
It’s the final moment she’s seen by anyone. She vanishes right afterwards.
And from that moment on she haunts the film like a condemning ghost.
Elly’s ghost doesn’t just condemn these careless friends for putting her in danger. Her ghost condemns the entire society putting her – and every other woman – in that impossible position.
Taraneh Alidoosti, The Salesman
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