Iranian filmmaker bridges deep political divides with irreverence
Masoud Dehnamaki, a former militant, has broken box-office records with his irreverent film about the Iran-Iraq war.
from the June 4, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
That year, he was present during a brutal attack at a university where students had protested peacefully over the closure of a reform paper. The incident was reported to have left up to nine students dead and sparked the most violent street protests since the revolution. Dehnamaki was detained and interrogated; the official investigation found that the sheer presence of a "famous member" of Ansar "was provocative, because students recognized him."
Dehnamaki's leap across Iran's political divide – from hidebound regime enforcer to the director of a groundbreaking film that raked in a record $1 million in 28 days – hasn't been easy.
The director had already raised conservative hackles with two documentaries, one exploring a taboo subject in "Poverty and Prostitution." "Ekhrajiha" also brought stinging criticism from many quarters, and Dehnamaki's former Ansar-e Hizbullah comrades even made their own documentary to counter the film.
Even before he directed "Ekhrajiha," The New York Times noted that Dehnamaki's outspoken documentaries had made him "Iran's Michael Moore." He told the paper he had made mistakes in the past, by blaming people instead of "our rulers, who have become used to corruption and cannot fulfill the promises of the early days of the revolution about social justice and equality."
Dehnamaki refused to take the prize for the Audience Favorite film at the prestigious Fajr Film Festival last year, saying he wanted more recognition for his crew. But armed with popular kudos, the director is preparing to break new ground again.
A sequel that will have the largest cast in Iranian cinema history is under way. The manuscript sits enticingly on a couch in his office. And the project has grown further, into a trilogy of full-length films – another Iranian first.
"Even when I was a member of Ansar, I was a cliché-breaker," says Dehnamaki, whose short beard and long-sleeve shirt buttoned at the wrists speaks to a conservative style. "I tried for everything to be real, to show the reality of the war. When you show the fear alongside bravery, and defeat along with victory, people will accept it."
The story is based on the young men Dehnamaki eventually led at the front, a motley crew whose victory – sometimes measured in terms of survival against a superior Iraqi force – speaks to the wider beliefs veterans hold about the war. "We resisted eight years and defeated the enemy," Dehnamaki says. "This is a source of pride for every Iranian."
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