Ferestadeh (1983)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Parviz Sayyad

Writers:

Hesam Kowsar (story)
Parviz Sayyad (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Parviz Sayyad	...	The Colonel
Mary Apick	...	Maliheh
Houshang Touzie	...	Agent From Teheran
Saeed Rajai	...	Agent From Teheran
Kamran Nozad	...	Ghaffar
Mohammed Ghaffari	...	His Eminence
Hatam Anvar	...	Maziar
Hedia Anvar	...	Farzaneh
Soraya Shayesteh	...	The Woman
Richard Mansfield	...	Mugger
David Filinni	...	Mugger
Liz Jones	...	Passerby
John Neil	...	Passerby
Frank Oddo	...	Cabbie
Murie Alcid	...	Cleaning Lady

Also Known As:

Der Auftrag (West Germany)
The Mission

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA | West Germany

Language:

English | Persian

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Aria

The moral struggle of figuring out for yourself how to tread the path of righteousness

Parviz Sayyad, a popular comic director in Iran before the revolution, had to leave his homeland and wound up in America with no funds to pursue his cinematic art. Somehow he scraped together the shoestring to get this one filmed, fortunately. It's a brilliant, compelling examination of what it means to follow your ideals, after you find out that everything you thought was wrong.

A young Iranian arrives in New York. He is a quiet, serious, pious Muslim. His orders: find the ex-SAVAK officer and kill him. While trailing the ex-SAVAK officer in New York's subway, he accidentally meets him face to face while helping him escape muggers. From his pocket falls the Qur'an with Persian translation. The ex-SAVAK officer picks it up and sees the Persian writing. Hey! You're from Iran too, what a coincidence, we must become friends! They do, in fact, become friends. The pious young Muslim assassin finds out that the ex-SAVAK officer is a nice guy, not a bad guy after all. He has two cute kids, and they love their new uncle from Iran (the assassin). How he can find it in his heart to kill this nice guy? Meanwhile he makes ablution and prays in his cockroachy apartment. The assassination commander tries to call him on the phone, but he does not answer so as not to interrupt his prayer. The assassination commander comes to see him, saying "Why don't you answer the phone? Praying? Oh, you are so pious" -- while he guzzles beer! So the young assassin faces a dilemma: he wanted to serve Islam, but he is forced to confront the question of where is real Islam -- in the revolution? Or in his heart? Then he is not sure what he should really do. The tragic ending is wrenching indeed.

This movie is made with heart and sympathy, about discovering moral ambiguity in one's own soul. An excellent view of the spiritual problems with the Iranian revolution made by an expatriate with no resources but his wit and his heart. If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it.