Iran, 6/14.

By David Hudson on 06/14/2009

[Updated through 6/16]

With the eyes and tweets of the world focused on Iran this weekend, I find myself, perhaps absurdly, wondering if there's anything a film blogger might do, in his own tiny way, to draw attention to a blatant fraud (and probably purposely blatant, too) and the attendant dictatorial crackdown. Is there a cinema-related hook here? Turns out, there is. Blogging for the New York Times in The Lede, Robert Mackey points to a report from the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran noting that director Mohsen Makhmalbaf has been appointed the official spokesperson for opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's campaign abroad: "He added that he is charged with informing the world that '[Friday] night Interior Ministry officials told Moussavi and his staff that he has won the elections but they should not make it public yet. Moussavi's campaign, accordingly, began preparations for a public celebration on Sunday.'"

We all know what happened next. Adds Mackey: "In what looks suspiciously like a related incident, Mr Makhmalbaf's personal Web site seems to have been attacked. A Google search for 'Makhmalbaf Film House,' leads to a warning saying that within the past 24 hours Google had spotted 'malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent' from the filmmaker's Web site."

And we keep watching. And tweeting. Meantime, a few other non-election-related items: "Many Western cinemaphiles were first introduced to Iranian movies in 1997 after director and screenwriter Abbas Kiarostami took home the well-deserved Palme d'Or for his film 'Taste of Cherry,'" writes Abel Kerevel in Foreign Policy. "And yet Iranian film has had a long and lively history - one that began well before 'Taste of Cherry' and has often been fraught with political and social controversy. As the world holds its collective breath awaiting the results of the Iranian election and all its implications, here is a list of 10 films that have stirred the country's politics over the years."

And with "Shirin" set to screen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Maya Jaggi profiles Kiarostami for the Guardian. The festival opens Wednesday and runs through June 28.

The Munich Film Festival (June 26 through July 4) will be screening "Shirin," Samira Makhmalbaf's "Two-Legged Horse" and Ramtin Lavafipour's "Calm Down and Count to Seven."

Updates, 6/15: Doug Block passes along a harrowing account from James Longley ("Iraq in Fragments") who, while interviewing people in the streets of Tehran yesterday, was nabbed off the street by plainclothes policemen. His translator was beaten, his camera bashed: "Eyewitnesses are reporting that fully-credentialed foreign journalists are similarly being detained all over Tehran today. The deputy head of the Ministry of Guidance just told me on the phone that other journalists have also been beaten, and that the official permissions no longer work. Also, foreign journalist visas are not being extended, so all of those people who were allowed in to cover the elections are now being forced out in the messy aftermath."

Neil Young on "Letters to the President": "This informative, raucously lively documentary on the state of present-day Iran packs an awful lot into its briskly-edited 74 minutes. Czech-born Canadian director/editor/cinematographer Petr Lom enjoys a surprisingly free rein as he wanders the country, from the teeming streets of Tehran to more secluded rural areas - only occasionally rubbing up against the kind of police-state repression which one has come to associate with Iran from western media." One supposes that would be very different as of this weekend.

Mike Hertenstein at Filmwell:

It remains to be seen what the effect of Mohsen Makhmalbaf's involvement in Saturday's violently-disputed election will have on his own journey, and that of his nation. Meanwhile, the possibility that Makhmalbaf is not alone among even the Revolutionary generation in experiencing such a personal evolution may explain the scenes of angry, chanting Iranian crowds this weekend - many of whom were joining in an unexpected chant of "Death" to - not "America" this time - but to "Ahmadinejad," the Iranian dictator.

Perhaps such scenes shouldn't be so unexpected. In "Marriage of the Blessed," one of the most powerful flashback images is the pan up from fingers on a typewriter to a vista of enemy tanks approaching from across the desert, the clattering of keys mixing with the sound of machine guns in a nightmarish jumble. In my own mind, I find juxtaposing with that image a flashback to that brave protester stopping the tank during the Tienanmen Square uprising, who became a symbol for the determination of relentless human aspiration for freedom. That figure now stands in front of Iranian tanks; if we bystanders can't do anything else, let's at least pay attention, and keep the brave figures in front of tanks in our thoughts, and if we're so inclined, in our prayers.

Online viewing tip. From the BBC: "Iran students hold secret rally."

"Because of directors like Panahi, Kiarostami et al., it was possible until fairly recently to put a bright spin on Iranian film culture--and, by extension, the country. But as the events of the past few days show, that's an increasingly tough, near-impossible sell." So what's happened? Vadim Rizov at GreenCine Daily: "There is, as it turns out, a good reason why much Iranian product has been virtually unexportable these last few years: it's been pretty much comically vile."

AJ Schnack has more email from James Longley.

Updates, 6/16: "This is more than just election rigging," Mohsen Makhmalbaf tells Nooshabeh Amiri in roozonline (via Ekkehard Knörer at Cargo):

People are shocked and resemble those of 1953 when a coup against nationalist leader Mossadegh took place. Then too people expected Mossadegh to win, but they lost him. Today people are in a state of shock, and I call this a coup d'état. This is more than just rigging. We must all say in unison: There has been a coup. This coup is of course not in favor of a dictatorship because what is important is that people have succeeded in pushing back dictatorship to the wall and so the state has been forced to forsake its legitimacy for dictatorship. Until this event, Iranian people and the world believed that in comparison with such countries as Iraq during Saddam Hussein which was a dictatorship, Iran had a relative democracy. People said that even though there are things like a clerical leadership, Guardian Council etc in Iran, the very fact that we can elect someone like Mohammad Khatami instead of an Ahmadinejad shows there is relative choice and election. Today however with this event, we have completely returned to the 1953 situation.

Allison Benedikt talks with Bahman Ghobadi - whose site has also been attacked, by the way - for the Voice: "No one can stop these young people anymore. It is not in the hands of the government. It's not about Mousavi or Khatami or Ahmadinejad. People are taking this into their own hands."

Meantime, Paris Photo will be shining a "Spotlight on Arab and Iranian photography" in November.

Pajamas Media posts "The Seven-Point Manifesto of the Iranian Resistance," translated by activist and filmmaker Ardeshir Arian. "Hundreds of thousands of copies [of the original] have already been circulated throughout the country."

Tags: Abbas Kiarostami, Iranian Cinema, Mohsen Makhmalbaf