Iran, Veiled Appearances (2003)
A Film by Thierry Michel
I highly recommend you to see this movie. This movie is a great sociological_anthropological_cultural deep soul searching of the Iranian people!
This movie is about the Two different Iran! The Islamic Fundamentalist Iran and The Modern Youth of Iran. The movie searches deep in to both faces of Iran. The movie interviews Young Basiji (pro regime) and young student activist (against regime). The director interviews a sister of zeynab and a westernized young Iranian girl. The movie interviews many people on both camps. The camera goes deep in both camps. The movie is not out on DVD yet. Once it gets out, you can purchase it at:
IPC Shopping => Movies
http://members.aol.com/ahreemanx/page67.html
For now, you can view the movie in a few different screenings on Sundance channel and on your local cable:
See the movie on
Sundance Channel
http://www.sundancechannel.com/
Iran, Veiled Appearances
Current Screenings:
Sunday 01.16.2005
9:30Â AM
Thursday 01.20.2005
10:30Â AM
Tuesday 01.25.2005
2:05Â PM
Wednesday 01.26.2005
5:20Â AM
Review:
Iran, Veiled Appearances (2003)
A Film by Thierry Michel
88 MINS, Color
Appeared at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival Free of the restrictions that would have hindered an Iranian filmmaker, Belgian documentarian Thierry Michel visits Iran with the goal of discovering the reality behind the pervasive stereotypes that define the country in the West. Twenty-three years after the Islamic revolution, Michel finds a country of contradictions: young Iranians yearn for cultural freedom while nearby paramilitary religious sects celebrate martyrdom. Troubling and eye-opening, IRAN, VEILED APPEARANCES presents a revealing portrait of a country on the eve of transition. TVPG (AC, AL, V)
Composed of a series of diverse, often contradictory images of mundane, everyday life juxtaposed against historical footage of protest and revolution, IRAN, VEILED APPEARANCES is a compelling and insightful documentary about contemporary Iran, 23 years after the Islamic Revolution.
Defying and clarifying the concept of Iran that is presented by U.S. media and politicians, filmmaker Thierry Michel gained extraordinary access to both Iran's paramilitary religious sects, and to the increasingly modernized youth. The younger Iranians express their desire for a more open society, and challenge the wisdom of their parents who fought for - and continue to embrace - the ideals of the Islamic Revolution. By illustrating the generational and ideological division inherent in the theocratic society of contemporary Iran, the film becomes an understatedly powerful document of a country at the cusp of profound change.
The film opens to a funeral for poet and activist Mohammad Mokhtari, a victim in a series of mysterious disappearances and deaths of prominent and outspoken intellectuals, presumably assassinated by the Islamic militia. The ensuing scenes witness, even humanize, Islamic extremists worshipping and praising martyrs. Thus, a parallel is drawn between Iranian intellectuals mourning their political martyrs, while the extremists celebrate their martyrs for Islam.
The film shifts to a scene of Iranian teenagers seeking refuge from the climate of mourning, violence and enforced obedience in the mountains surrounding Tehran. The scenes of teens indulging in small acts of freedom, out of the Bassijis' reach (with other scenes of youth in a drama school and in a college dorm) capture the anger, frustration and spirit of the Iranian youth. "Our society is in freefall," one youth states, while coed dancers express hopelessness ("Our lives are suspended").
IRAN, VEILED APPEARANCES also shows the families that gather outside the prison where men are tortured for their beliefs, while democracy advocates gather in larger crowds. The Iranian revolution took one kind of courage; outliving it requires quite another.
By illustrating these dramatically different forces at play within Iranian society, Michel gives us a rare glimpse into a country that seems destined for change - or perhaps not.
Also available in a 90 minute version
"A revelatory examination... Michel's access is remarkable, his insights pointed. The film, of course, couldn't be more timely." - Newsday
"Compelling... The testimony of the proponents of democratic reform who have suffered for their beliefs is poignant, and the scenes of their opponents preparing for further retaliatory action carry an ominous power. Recommended." - Video Librarian
"Ventur[es] into dangerous territory, looking for a reality that has little to do with the images to be found in the international press... What emerges is a film that gives a brief glimpse of the complexity of the social fabric in modern Iran, where a desire for modernism chafes against the bedrock of fundamentalism. A courageous film... careful to ground its observations on a realistic human scale." - The Bulletin
** 2003 Middle East Studies Association FilmFest
** 2003 Sundance Film Festival
** 2003 Human Rights Watch Film Festival
** Honorable Mention, 2003 DocAviv International Documentary Film Festival
** 2002 Amsterdam International Documentary Festival
** Grand Prize, 2002 Creation Documentary Festival (France)
** 2002 Joseph Plateau Prize for Best Belgian Documentary
Links about the movie
http://avalon.unomaha.edu/jrf/CREDITS/iranveil.htm
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0342577/
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IMDB (Internet Movie Database)
http://www.imdb.com
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