Iranian Zen

Films with Andrei Zadansky

Alexander Genis: After President Trump decided to withdraw from the agreement on monitoring nuclear weapons in Iran, this country reappeared in the front of the newspapers. But, as often happens, the aggravation of relations between the Iranian authorities and America affects interest in Iranian culture, primarily in extremely original cinema. And now the elite cinema of the United States is waiting for the Iranian film, which has already managed to get a reward in Cannes.

The microphone has the host of the film "American hour" director Andrei Zagdansky.

Andrei Zadansky: Jafar Panahi is a name well known among filmmakers. Jafar as an assistant Abbas Kiarosts began work in the movie, then he began to shoot independently, but quite obviously retained the influence of his mentor, an outstanding master. Saves, but does not imitate - it is very important. His film "White Ball" received a prize in Cannes in the late 90s, he was very highly appreciated by both the jury and criticism.

Alexander Genis: It is also important that the procession of Iranian cinema in the world film festivals began with this film.

Andrei Zadansky: The so -called Iranian wave in the cinema went.

Alexander Genis: This reminds me of the story with Akira Kurosava, who set the film "Rasemon", defeated in Venice and opened a Japanese cinema to the world. That's about the same story happened with Iranian cinema.

Andrei Zagdansky: In 2010, Jafar was arrested in Iran, sentenced to six years in prison and a ban on the profession for another 20 years, that is, he cannot be written, nor to shoot, nor give interviews, nor go abroad. Just like Taras Shevchenko. In anticipation of the verdict, Jafar made an extraordinary film called "This is not a film." The obvious challenge to censorship and at the same time playing with it. The documentary film, where Jafar plays himself and is always in his house, in his apartment. Thus, the conditions of the sentence are fully respected, but at the same time the classic unity of the place, time and action is observed.

I say that the film is documentary, but in fact it is a compound of documentary and game, the seams are very difficult to discern or, even say, impossible. It’s like Anges Varda in her last films “The Board” and “The Faces of the Village”: you can’t say for sure - this is a documentary or gaming movie, this is her movie. I really love this phrase of Godard, which says that the documentary and the game is different from each other only in that we shoot the game as documentary, and we mount the documentary as a game.

Then Jafar made the film "Taxi", he also plays himself there. This is also a connection of game and documentary cinema. Taxi is an imitation of a documentary where Jafar plays a taxi driver.

Alexander Genis: He really worked as a taxi driver and talked with people who were driving.

Andrey Zadansky: The film came from this. But at the same time, he is driving, he leads a car - controls the situation. And this is directing.

Alexander Genis: All these works are very popular in the world. He received three main awards at film festivals in Venice, in Cannes and Berlin. This suggests that his presence in world cinema is undoubtedly and very important.

Andrei Zadansky: In the third picture, Jafar appears again, he again plays himself. Moreover, he is driving again, he leads his car, carries the heroine of the film. Jafar Panahi is always present like himself. His hero is invariably very restrained, very laconic, very charming and very non -confrontation - an important word, he does not come into conflict with anyone. His restrained reactions exactly correspond to the author’s narrative style. These are small dramatic situations, which, it seems, are not of fundamental importance for the narrative, but they are accumulated into a large drama. Then we understand that there will be an explosion, and it looks like the style of his teacher. Everything seems to be secondary, everything is not very important, but emotions gradually accumulate.

Alexander Genis: What immediately reminded me of the "taste of cherries", the famous film by kiarasts, where everything is built: small details are collected so that it all ends with a space explosion.

Andrei Zagdansky: When I watched this picture, I thought about how this eastern non -confrontation differs from the European one, suppose, from the same Lars von Trier, whom we both love. Lars von Trier attacks our idea of morality. His "dogville" is a conscious provocation that explodes our ideas about God, of justice, and the morality that we carry in ourselves.

Alexander Genis: This is a war against ethics.

Andrey Zadansky : Is there a god? No God? What God? The favorite work of the Scandinavian directors to attack us so.

Alexander Genis: But if Bergman has all the “thoughts”, then von Trier has a massacre that he arranges on the screen, in order to shake our theology.

Andrey Zadansky: And he transfers her to you. He wants you to connect to this massacre and engage in the extermination of your own demons.

Alexander Genis: As soon as you remembered the Dogville, I shuddered because I remembered that in this film von Trier managed to force the viewer to empathize with the one who shoots the children. This can only be such a director who is a demon himself.

Andrey Zadansky: But this is God!

Alexander Genis: God who shoots children is still that god.

Andrey Zadansky: In fact, these are the angels of death. But let's leave von Trier.

Alexander Genis: Although I understand why you remembered him, this is a direct opposite.

Frame from the film

Andrei Zadansky: Because I watched the film and thought about how the East differs from the West. You remembered Kurosava today, and I will remember the Ozu. RAM has exclusively non -confrontation paintings. Why do we see the drama, why the fact that we look on the screen is generally a drama? It is difficult to say when you watch the film of one of the most mysterious, most outstanding filmmakers in the world. Why am I chained to the screen? After all, nothing captured of my attention happens.

Alexander Genis: Since you have raised this topic, it should be said that in the films of the RAM, maybe the most interesting thing is that he shoots interiors without people. For example, he shows how the clock goes - it's like watching how the grass grows. This is the meditativity of such a movie. And this is not a random parallel. In a very deep review of the newspaper "Gardian" to the film "Three Persons" it is written that if you watch this film, then know that you are immersed in Iranian Zen.

Andrei Zadansky: I did not know that they wrote so. You see, great minds think like it.

Alexander Genis: Modest.

Andrei Zadansky: Modest, so I laughed from an English proverb. But really you are immersed in another perception of the world. Jafar contemplates, folding the details. They are very different, it seems that they seem to have nothing to do with a single picture. The only thing that unites them is his presence.

The film begins with the fact that a young woman says the last word, an appeal to another woman, to the actress, before committing suicide. This happens in the cave. I do not reveal anything important to the audience, since this beginning is instantly, and I am not going to open the end of the film. She says goodbye, reproaches this woman of apparently she could help her when this girl wanted to enter the conservatory to become an actress, to start a fundamentally different career, another life.

Alexander Genis: And break out of his primitive village.

Andrei Zagdansky: The record breaks on this, the loop, the rope, the body probably broke. The next thing we see is a woman of another generation who sits in the car, looks at this entry and talks with Jafar, who is sitting behind the wheel. They go to this village. Here, in fact, is the whole premise of the film, all the most importantly will happen after that. What I said occurs within three minutes. And then continuous accumulation of details, you are waiting for the explosion, you wait for all these small components to turn together. You understand that it all goes to detonation. But what is going on, we do not guess.

The film is called "Three Persons" and there are really three faces in the film, and the third we never see. This is the third woman who is shown to us with silhouette on a very general plan. But her fate is present throughout the film. Here, in fact, is the plot of the picture. This is a film about women, about female destinies, about the desire to free themselves, to throw off all these restrictions that exist in Iran. And about men, about what they play in this role. Including - a lot of funny, monstrous details, many male superstitions, which, are also, apparently, thousands of years.

And in the final - a climax, an explosion, an amazing cinematic holiday, I cannot choose a different word. This is one long frame in which Jafar masterly connects all the lines of the narrative. For some reason, this was a little reminded by Fazil Iskander, some kind of connection, maybe because it is the East, maybe because around the mountain.

Alexander Genis: Fazil Iskander was half the Persian.

Andrei Zadansky: Maybe because this attitude is non -confrontation, but connecting. If you transfer to the field of grammatical unions, then this is not “or-or”.

Alexander Genis: Actually, “or-or” is the conflict, struggle, an agon on which the whole Western dramaturgy is built.

Andrei Zadansky: And this is “I-I”-both both, and the third. All are connected on the same road between the two peaks: the fate of the two women, and the fate of the bull, and the fate of the cows, which are taken to him for fertilization, all small, funny, large, stupid life details are connected together.

And there is one absolutely amazing detail outside the film - ohmage to the teacher, ohmage with kiarasts. At the end of the film by Kiarasts "Through olives" a boy who persuades the girl to marry him, they are both children, runs after her. Throughout the film, she is silent, silent, silent, and then he understands that he has a chance, he throws everything and runs to her. In the film “Three Persons” there is a link to this picture when one heroine of the film shouts another: “Wait for me!” And runs after her.

After the film, I talked with my friends and told them in Russian about the film by kiarasts and what link is at the end of one film on another. Two people who did not know the Russian language stood nearby, they turned to me in English: "Yes, I also thought about the same film." It can be seen that from my gestures they realized what I was talking about, and heard the name with kiarons. Interestingly, they both instantly understood how two paintings are connected. This is an awesome cinematic grace in the film. Here, in fact, everything that I wanted to tell you about the Iranian Zen.

Alexander Genis: The same critic from Gardian, said that this is a quasi -regional parabola. Parabola is a fable with morality. Where is moral?

Andrey Zadansky: There is morality there. Jafar has a position, and she is concrete, rooted in the political reality of Iran and in the position of a woman in Iranian life at all three levels: the generation is the youngest, the generation is average, the generation is elderly. He said his own. But this is the listing of one, the other, the third, this, and, and, and, they all have their own correctness, he does not refute anyone.

Alexander Genis: And this is ultimately the moral of the film?

Andrey Zadansky: Yes.

Alexander Genis: Jafar Panahi recently gave an interview and said that the future of Iranian cinema looks good because digital cameras appeared. If earlier all the cinema was in the hands of the state, now young filmmakers can work with simple equipment available to everyone. Therefore, the movie ceases to be a state monopoly. I thought that his situation resembles the situation in Russia, for example, Serebrennikov, who makes the movie under house arrest. Perhaps this means that cinema today plays the role that literature played in our youth, samizdat-it was primarily literature, and now Kino Syudat has appeared.

Andrei Zadansky: If we talk about the fate of Jafar, then everything happened. His film was taken to a flash drive from Iran and handed over to the festival, where he was shown. This is very reminiscent of the story of the same Solzhenitsyn.

Alexander Genis: Or Dovlatov, whose manuscript a French tourist took out on a video film.

Andrey Zadansky: Previously, novels were taken out, now - films. In this sense, yes, everything is like. The role that the movie plays in society has changed, the cinema has become really more freely, it is more divorced from state control. In this sense, we must look at the future optimistic.