Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925)

The struggles of a hardscrabble Iranian nomadic tribe as they journey through bleak country to reach the grasslands that will save their livestock.

Directors:

Merian C. Cooper (uncredited), Ernest B. Schoedsack (uncredited)

Writers:

Richard Carver (titled by) (as Richard P. Carver), Terry Ramsaye (titled by)

Stars:

Merian C. Cooper, Ernest B. Schoedsack, Marguerite Harrison

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Merian C. Cooper	...	Himself (as Merian Cooper)
Ernest B. Schoedsack	...	Himself
Marguerite Harrison	...	Herself - a Journalist
Haidar Khan	...	Himself - Chief of the Bakhtyari Tribe
Lufta	...	Himself - Haidar Khan's Son

Storyline

The real-life struggles of the Bakhtiari tribe of Southern Persia (Iran) to migrate with 50,000 people and ten times as much livestock over seemingly impassable natural barriers of mountain and river during harsh weather conditions to reach grazing lands for their cattle and other livestock. Their hardscrabble life is portrayed with poetically beautiful cinematography in possibly the greatest documentary of the silent era.

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Plot Keywords:

national film registry | tribe | mountain | journey | iran | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

Passed

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 February 1926 (Denmark)

Also Known As:

Grass

Filming Locations:

Karun River, Iran

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Merian C. Cooper and Ernest Schoedsack

Technical Specs

Runtime:

71 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

Title Card: As night approaches, Haidar and Lufta - - - - see before them a hundred and fifty miles of rugged, unmapped mountains. On the way where there is no way.

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Alternate Versions

Milestone Film & Video released a version in 1991 with a new score produced by Richard Einhorn, and running 71 minutes.

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Connections

Featured in I'm King Kong!: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005)

User Reviews

Incredible!

They probably could have skipped some of the beginning - I'm not sure why this starts out in the Asian part of Turkey. If it was because starting in the Mediterranean, they could have gotten closer starting in modern day Lebanon.

One the cameras and crews get to the Bakhtyari tribe, it's the beginning of an amazing 48 day journey. 50,000 people with about 250,000 goats, camels, cattle, and horses make this amazing trek across what seems to be a very fast moving Karun River. They use rafts that are kept afloat by inflating goat skins - you can see where the head and legs were removed. The other "bank" of the river was very steep - I'm guessing about a 60 degree rise.

Just watching that was incredible, but there was much more to come. To get to the pastures, they also had to cross a major mountain that had about 4 feet of snow, if not more. Being able to climb this mountain was pretty amazing in and of itself, but they (and all of the animals) climbed this mountain barefoot! Yes, barefoot.

The one drawback to this documentary were some of the inter-titles with poor attempts at humor.

If you want to see a documentary from the silent era, or the incredible challenges that this tribe not only face, but conquer. This is just an incredible document of a little known group of people facing all kinds of challenges.