Memo To: Iran (by Kent Adamson)

This is by Kent Adamson, a new friend of mine, who kindly took up the call on Facebook to write something for the Iranian Film Blogathon. You can read more about Kent Adamson’s diverse career here. We have bonded on all things Ann Savage (he knew her very well, and wrote a book about her: Savage Detours: The Life and Work of Ann Savage), and it also turns out that he has a long-standing fascination with all things Kurdish, something he had studied in college. He watched Bahman Gohbadi’s beautiful Half Moon for this Blogathon, and wrote the following memo to Iran. Thank you, Kent!

TO: IRAN
FROM: KENT ADAMSON, Hollywood, California, USA
RE: IDEA JAIL – it only exists in your mind, baby.

Date: February 20, 2011

Sirs, and I know you are,

Movies, like music, do not follow the borderlines drawn on maps by your cartographers, secured by your guns. Movies are made from three fundamental elements: images, sounds and ideas. You can refuse to show an image, you can turn sound down or off, but you cannot stop an idea, no matter how hard you try. You cannot expect ideas to respect your borders, and stay within them. You cannot throw the thinkers of ideas in jail, and expect their ideas to stay in there with them. Any idea, old or new, that has been thought and communicated by your jailed filmmakers is free to the world forever. There is no jail term for a good idea. It lives or dies in the wind. Get it?! I know you do, because you feel threatened by movies and the people who make them.


Photo by Kevin Lee, Berlin, 2011

Within your country there is a tribe of people known as the Kurds. About half of this tribe lives within the borders of Iran. Most of the rest of the Kurdish people live inside the borders of Iraq. Now, the Kurds think they live in Kurdistan, which appears nowhere on any map, but thrives within the minds of the people who live in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Kurdistan has existed since the 12th century. You can chase the Kurds across your borders, you can hold them within your border checkpoints, rob them, beat them, rape them, shoot them, even gas them en masse as Saddam Hussein did, but you cannot stop them from believing they live in Kurdistan. Even if you throw every single Kurd in jail you will not wipe out Kurdistan. In fact, you will put Kurdistan on the map in the eyes of the world. Get it?! I don’t think ya do.

Within the non-state nation of Kurdistan, on the Iranian side, there is a thriving tribe of moviemakers. The last decade has been a watershed era for Kurdish cinema. Compelling dramas filled with transporting images of the Kurdish people, their land, their music, the struggles between their men and women, their search to reunite with their families scattered across armed borders… all available throughout the world. Here in Hollywood, Kurdish movies seem to turn up most frequently on DVD and on demand with Netflix. Unfortunately, theatrical screenings are very rare. This is something I’d like to speak to you about, once you stop trying to hold ideas in jail.

We could begin with a screening of Half Moon (2006) by Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi. Have you seen it? It tells the story of a legendary Iranian Kurdish elder musician, Mamo, who attempts to give a final farewell performance to his fans across the border in Iraq. Mamo would like to sing at a live music festival with the beautiful Hesho. Unfortunately, you guys forbid women to sing in public.

Let’s have a word about music, for a moment. Music communicates through harmonics. Harmony. The open blending of sounds and ideas makes beautiful music. Women are very good at this. Think about it.

So, Mamo must take his ten sons, and smuggle Hesho across the border into Iraq to harmonize. This is what we in Hollywood call a PERFECT set up. A musical tour as metaphor for the historic struggle of a stateless nation, set against shifting boundaries, held by armed checkpoints. No, I’m not gonna tell ya another thing about it, because I want ya to see it, to experience the beauty of Kurdish vision and hear the music that weaves through it. It will stay in your mind long after the movie is over. Get it?!

Watch Half Moon, and then let’s have a chat about your diplomatic mission to Hollywood. You guys need a serious sit down over here.

If your intent is to silence Panahi and Rasoulof by jailing them, and repressing their ideas, maaaaaan, did you ever blow it! Bigtime!! You just put them in orbit around the world!!!

Come to Hollywood, we’ll talk.

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16 Responses to Memo To: Iran (by Kent Adamson)

  1. sheila says:

    Kent – this is such a beautiful piece, and I love the Memo format. The statelessness of the Kurds is still one of the big taboos in Iranian films – a political minefield – and the filmmakers who take it on deserve so much credit.

    I am so pleased, too, to hear your thoughts on Half Moon, a film I am in love with (not just because one of my favorite actresses, Hedye Tehrani, stars as the exiled singer Hesho) – but because of the music, the themes of family and homeland, and also the characters. Every actor here is amazing. I totally believe that all of those guys are a FAMILY.

    Ghobadi is a giant talent (I loved his most recent film about the underground music scene in Tehran – No one Knows About Persian Cats), and it’s great to see him highlighted here.

    Thanks again for participating!

  2. Kent says:

    Thank you for the opportunity to contribute, Sheila! The story of the Kurdish people is an epic human struggle which has taken place over centuries. Ghobadi is brilliant at distilling this down to just a few characters caught in an immediate, intimate drama. His earlier film MAROONED IN IRAQ is also a personal favorite. Best of luck with this Blogathon!

  3. alli says:

    Wow- I knew Kurdistan had been contested for a long time… I had no idea how long though. Lovely piece. Half Moon sounds amazing! Added to the “find this now!” list. (Which grows every time I come here, I think!)

  4. sheila says:

    My only disappointment about Half Moon is that I can’t seem to get my hands on any kind of soundtrack – although I am sure one exists in Iran. The music is amaaaaazing.

  5. Kent says:

    HALF MOON and many other Ghobadi and Iranian pictures are available on Netflix, much to my delight and amazement. I say this after a LIFETIME of loving International films, and finding many of them them very difficult, or impossible to track down. Even Fellini is still not fully represented on DVD! Sheila, would love to hear a score, or even a Ghobadi music compilation. His soundtracks are always beautiful and expressive.

  6. sheila says:

    Kent – I know, thank God for Netflix. You can even get television movies from Iran on Netflix – and those are the things that often REALLY give you a feeling of what it’s like on the ground.

    There’s gotta be a Ghobadi album out there somewhere – especially after Persian Cats which got so much press. The heavy metal band in Persian Cats, who rehearsed in a barn out in the country to avoid detection, are fantastic (you can find the clip on Youtube) – but I’d love to, you know, download the damn thing onto my iPod. Actually, maybe Persian Cats is available – I haven’t checked for that one on iTunes.

  7. sheila says:

    I love those guys.

  8. sheila says:

    And you’ll notice, Kent, that the lyrics reflect your thoughts on the Idea Jail. This is a political song.

  9. sheila says:

    Success. The music from No One Knows About Persian Cats has been released on iTunes.

  10. Bamshad says:

    Very nice piece, Kent!

    What’s also interesting is the regime’s inability to understand how much filmmakers like Ghobadi and Panahi is actually helping them by exporting these images of the country’s population to the outside world. Surely without the humanizing effect of their films Iran in the eyes of (mostly) Europeans and Americans would have seemed completely different.

  11. sheila says:

    Bamshad – I think what you say is so so true. They should be proud of Panahi’s successes, of the successes of all their artists. It’s like sending an athlete to the Olympics – you know? They do the nation proud, etc. With art, you get a glimpse into the inner life/concerns of the people – and yes: it’s an amazing cultural export. I mean, I see Half Moon, and I’m not a Kurd, I don’t live in exile, I don’t have to hide underneath a truck so I won’t get arrested for traveling with men I am not related to – but that movie WRECKED me. The last 15 minutes WRECKED me. I have a father. I have lost a father. I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to stand around with my siblings, being worried about our parents, and losing our parents. Half Moon works on all of those levels as well. It is a very moving film, totally relateable, even with the political elements regarding the Kurds.

    I was blown away by it.

    But if you have some preconceived notion of what “those people over there” are like – no way could you maintain that dehumanizing stereotype after watching these movies. Just not possible.

  12. sheila says:

    Also, on a purely entertainment-value level: there’s a whole Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland “I’ve got a barn – let’s do a show” urgency to Half Moon that is one of the oldest Hollywood stories in the book. As Kent says: it is the PERFECT setup.

    Come hell or high water, that show in Iraq WILL happen.

    I got very caught up in that aspect of it the first time I saw it, which was partly why the film wrecked me so bad at the end.

    • Kent says:

      Thanks Bamshad! You’re right, it is a true shame that Iran doesn’t seem to know how to capitalize on the brilliance of their filmmakers. I also wonder how these films are seen and understood within Iran. A film from the region of Kurdistan may be as foreign to the experience of people in Tehran, as it is to the US. Yes, Sheila they got me too! The ending of Half Moon is such a double cross to western eyes, that it hits like a body blow. The character truth and symbolic political truth reinforce each other and are devastating because we have been so trained to root for the success of this mission. I was so happily hoping to be rewarded with one of those big onstage musical finales, but it is a larger story that is so subtly being told. Ghobadi renders political truth so intimately, and with such heartbreak for the characters and audience, that it is haunting.

  13. sheila says:

    Kent – I know, how much did you so want to see a giant triumphant concert?

    The film has that tension and drive in it from the beginning, but the Requiem intensifies, as it does for us all. That last shot … woah.

    It’s a deep deep film.

    • Kent says:

      Yes, and the ending and final shots are what make it universal, as you suggest. More than the mission or politics or even people, it turns out to be a temporal tale. Eternal and universal. Of course, it must be experienced for the entire 107 linear minutes (I wish in a darkened theater) to feel the full impact, and understand the rich design underlying the story.

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