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 3 of 3
Cloaked in comedy, "Ekhrajiha" tells of a gang member named Majid who gets out of prison and explains his absence by pretending to be returning triumphantly from the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca. But he is found out, and the woman he loves dismisses him as unworthy. Majid and several friends – irreverent misfits, junkies, and thieves who are disdainful of the official revolutionary zeal of the time – decide to prove themselves by signing up to fight.
The men are challenged by religious men as they try to sign up and are tested. How often have they been to Friday prayers? "Yes, I went, but I was caught in traffic and arrived at 3 p.m., so it was closed," replies one joker. "They said to come back on Saturday."
When the men finally make it to the front line, they are again dismissed by those who are ready to become martyrs, and who fight in God's name, out of spiritual devotion. "Their presence destroys the order of the war," one officer confides to another.
In the process, Majid is transformed. He risks his life, stepping across a minefield that has claimed several soldiers. Some of those who appeared to be much more religious turn out to be cowards or weak. "God, why did you bring me here to show me that they changed and I didn't?" implores one religious man who hides during a firefight. "God, you've won."
There was even a scent of subversion on the set, according to a "behind the scenes" film made by Dehnamaki that can be bought on the street. "Look, my whole body is trembling for the sake of these dialogues that are given to us," complains one older actress, worried about controversy and unaware the camera is recording.
She says she took the job for the "lowest wage" to pay for her own trip to Mecca, swear "upon the Koran" that she is not the kind of person who would normally say such things, and then hopes the film will finally not be a approved by Iran's official censors.
"This is all the work of Mr. Dehnamaki," says the actress. "In this job you do not even have one moment of peace. Every moment your heart is about to sink, [expecting] they are going to come and arrest us."
But the film has had a spellbinding effect on its audience. Dehnamaki provided a "recipe of salvation," says one veteran observer, for Iranians deeply divided between hard-liners – many of them veterans who look down on those who did not make similar sacrifices – and reformists, who deem the war a historical footnote with little connection to their Western-leaning lives.
"In the audience you had all-chadored [black-cloaked conservative] women, and bad-hejabi girls [with loose head scarves]," says the observer. "He brought them together, side by side."
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