Looking at Frank Miller and 300

Comic-book artist Frank Miller was interviewed on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” this week, as part of a “diverse group of creative thinkers” talking about the United States’ state of the union from their vantage points.

I’ve always been (and still am) a huge fan of Miller’s artwork and much of his storytelling, and the cinematic vision of his latest comic-turned-film, 300, is nothing short of breathtaking. The film is based on the Spartan-Persian Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartans fought to the death against the massive Persian army. Clearly, this movie is not stacked in favor of the Persians; everyone loves an underdog, and you can’t get a more prototypical one than the Spartans in 300. To be fair, the story is told from the point of view of the Spartan king, and it’s more historical fantasy than fact. The Persian king, Xerxes, is reportedly portrayed as Greek historians wrote him, effeminate and beastly, while the Spartans wax poetic on the freedoms of man (never mind the fact that Sparta was an intolerant police state). In fact, until I’d heard this week’s “Talk of the Nation,” the visual merits of 300 had been enough for me to chalk up to artistic license the blatant historical inaccuracies and demonization of Persians in this movie. But “Talk of the Nation” revealed Miller’s disturbing bias against the Middle East, and this subsequently casts 300 in a whole new light.

In the interview he says, “The entire western world is up against an existential foe… Nobody seems to be talking about who we’re up against, and the sixth-century barbarism that these people actually represent. These people saw people’s heads off. They enslave women, they genetically mutilate their daughters.” [Writer's note: I believe Miller is referring to genital mutilation.] At first he sounds as if he’s talking specifically about terrorism, and this article isn’t a defense of that type of barbarism. But it’s a critique of the giant brush Miller is using to paint the people of the Middle East as barbarians, because as the interview progresses, it sounds as though he doesn’t see much difference between the fringe, like Al-Qaeda, and the rest of us, who don’t adhere to or support that ideology. Nor does he seem to recognize the fact that the people actually suffering for the war in Iraq are largely innocent civilians. It also seems Miller thinks America has the patent on independence, free-thinking, and innovation; he actually says, “I’m speaking into a microphone that never could have been a product of their culture.” Perhaps he doesn’t know that the Middle East is the cradle of civilization and his comments sound tinged with racism. In light of these comments, it’s hard to see 300 as just a movie.

It appears that 300 supports the idea that western ideology is one that respects independence and freedom while Persians are a warmongering, unsympathetic lot bent on the destruction and submission of others. I understand the concept of artistic license but this film perpetuates the concept of a race of people inherently incapable of understanding the rights of human beings. It’s what Miller seems to believe, and it’s what his movie seems to promote.

Thursday Edition: Pars Links

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis
The NY Times printed a great article about the English-language version of Persepolis, the animated feature based on Marjane Satrapi’s autobiographical comic books. We covered the movie a couple of weeks ago and can’t wait to see it. (The photo above is of Satrapi and her co-director Vincent Paronnaud, by Ed Alcock for the NYT).

Iranian cinema in NYC
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York is holding a series called Storm Warnings: The Films of Bahman Farmanara; according to their website, he’ll be at the screenings, so it’s worth checking out. (If, like us, you’d never heard of him before, just click on the link – they have a good bio.)

Nima Taherzadeh at Saks
Fresh-out-of-Parsons designer Nima Taherzadeh will be appearing at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City tomorrow (Friday) from 1-3 p.m. He’s 24 years old and their Young Designers boutique snapped up his 2007 collection. Hey Nima, any chance Saks will give us a Persian-style “hamvatan” discount on your dresses?

Does this mean the Persian McMansions are staying?
Three Iranians are running for city council in Beverly Hills. That means half the number of total candidates running for the two open spots are Iranian. Based purely on first impressions culled from website homepages, our hypothetical vote goes to Maggie Soleimani, whose site makes us want to poke our own eyes out less than the other two’s. But we do like that Shahram Melamed is using his Iranian first name – it lost us the election for 9th grade historian, but we wish him the best. Either way, it looks an uphill battle for both of them because Jimmy Delshad is already the city’s vice mayor. Jimmy has a scrolling photo thing on his homepage that features lots of pictures of political celebs (and lots of people in suits that just look official) and has a last name that means “happy heart.” Also, how can anyone resist a guy who looks like he’s got blush on in every photo? Good luck, Maggie and Shahram.

Relief Regrets
Looks like London is letting a very old lady sell her Persepolis relief. We covered this story last week and we’re sorry the outcome is so annoying. Thanks, Britain.

Everyone Loves Their Abjeez
Iranian sisters The Abjeez (“abjee” is Persian slang for “sister”) are somewhat well-known by now as purveyors of cheeky, meaningful pop with Persian lyrics. Their first CD, Hameh, which means “everyone,” has finally been released. Check out their awesome video for their song “Eddeaa” (which means “claim” or “pretension”). Are you too lazy to click the video? It’s Persian lyrics against a reggae-ish beat, with a sepia-toned video that features the Abjeez styled as classic Persian beauties, complete with elegant unibrows that they move in time to the music.

FarsiTube
Speaking of videos, here’s the Persian version of YouTube, FarsiTube. Right now there are only 12 categories, and pack-leaders are “funny” and “music videos,” not surprisingly. Slightly disturbing and skeevy is the “women” category. Let’s just say it’s not exactly full of videos of Shirin Ebadi speeches. There’s no “men” category yet – surprise, surprise.

Sultans of Satire?
The LA Times covered the upcoming Sultans of Satire performance in LA. It’s being put on by the Levantine Cultural Center this Saturday night. Comedy is great, but way to bank on cultural stereotypes with that title for your troupe. We’ve seen some of those comics perform so it’ll be funny, but we wonder how smart-funny (isn’t that what “satire” means?) it will be. Any LA readers who attend the show are encouraged to chime in.

Virtual Iran

My father was in town a few days ago, helping me move to a new place. I hadn’t seen him in over a year and it was good just to sit and talk again. Over a few games of backgammon, he caught me up with what family and friends were up to. My hometown of Kermanshah is changing considerably, with old houses being torn down to make way for new ones. The old chicken farm that once was a good 45-minute drive from town is now slowly being engulfed by these new houses. The town that I grew up in exists only in my memory.

Thinking about the old places we had lived, I asked my dad for the proper spelling of the small university town we had lived in, Molasani. Some of the earliest memories of my life are from that town; it was located near the Karun River in the south of Iran, a short distance from the border with Iraq and not that far from the Persian Gulf. I still remember the blue skies criss-crossed with traces of jet fighters early in the Iran-Iraq War, and the refugees that lived in our driveway for a few months before we moved to Tehran.

I had searched for Molasani multiple times with no luck, and thought maybe I had remembered the name wrong. It turns out that no one called the town by that name except the people who lived there, as it was, after all, really just a handful of houses for agriculture professors, about an hour away from Ahvaz. But I had always wanted to see the town again and I visited right then with my dad beside me, albeit virtually.

You might have used Google Maps for driving directions, but you can view most of the Earth using its satellite option (or see it in 3D via Google Earth). We found Molasani and then Kermanshah, and my mom’s old house in Tehran, and the summer house we’d stayed in at the Caspian Sea… Before I knew it, two hours had passed and we had traveled all over Iran.

While Google Maps is good at finding big cities like Tehran, they don’t have everything, and this is where Wikipedia comes in. Search for any major Iranian town and look for the link to the coordinate page (sometimes it’s in the upper right hand corner, sometimes at the start of the article). There are even interactive maps, on which people have labeled their local hangouts, like the one made by Sharif University students (unfortunately, I lost that link). Clicking on the coordinates in Wikipedia takes you to a page of map sources (here’s one for Tehran), which connects you to dozens of other sites to create your virtual journey.

One more tip: Just make sure you are on a broadband connection, as waiting on a modem line to download each square can be more painful than the customs questions in Iran.

[Editor's note: We're very happy to have Asad as our first contributing writer ever. Do you want to write for Pars Arts? Send us an email with your story idea: editor-AT-parsarts.com.]

Pars Arts on Iranian.com

We’re big fans of Iranian.com and its founder, Jahanshah Javid, so we were really excited that he linked ParsArts.com today. And it was flattering to be deemed “artsy smartsy.” Welcome, all you Iranian.com readers – we hope you like Pars Arts, pass it along to your friends, will want to contribute your writing to help the site grow, and come back again soon!

Interviews with Young Iranians: Omid Abtahi, Actor

We’re pleased to present our first post in the Interviews with Young Iranians Series on parsarts.com. In this series, we’ll be talking to young Iranians to watch – they’re doing cool things in their respective fields, and getting noticed for them. One of these is up-and-coming actor Omid Abtahi, who has been a cast member on two network TV shows, has appeared on three others, and has a film career that’s taking off. He took some time out from the set of his latest film, The Last Lullaby, in which he plays an assassin, to answer some of our questions about growing up Iranian, how he picks his roles, and where he’s going next.

Pars Arts: Your first big acting role was as Tariq on the FX show, “Over There.” Was it difficult for you to pick up Arabic? What did you draw from your own Iranian background in shaping the character? That is, how much of Tariq is you?

Omid Abtahi: First off, it was very difficult pick up the Arabic. I spent many hours with an Arabic translator going over my pronunciation, and got to a point where he could actually understand what I was saying. Farsi draws a lot of its vocabulary from the Arabic language, making it easier for me to understand [Arabic]. However, undestanding what I was saying didn’t make the pronunciation part of it any easier. As for Tariq, he was very much like me. I have a brother in the military, and since his time overseas he has grown distant from our family. Doing this show allowed me to relate to his experience a bit, and I hope I made him proud. I love him more than he knows.

PA: I want to talk about “Sleeper Cell.” In stark contrast to your “Over There” work, you play a bad guy – a gay, ex-pat Iraqi terrorist – on the Showtime show, and you’ve had some sex scenes and nudity. First things first: a lot of Iranian actors have spoken out about their refusal or reluctance to play terrorists. What’s your take on this and are there roles you won’t accept? Are you sick of hearing this question, or do you still think it’s relevant ?

OA: Well, I think everyone has a right to pick and choose their roles. For me, the only thing I won’t do are poorly written characters. Other than that, everything is fair game. I enjoy playing dark characters, terrorists or not. It satiates a dark side of me that I don’t allow in my everyday life. And the role of Salim in Sleeper Cell gave me so much to work with as an actor – so much complexity, so much depth, and an opportunity to grow both as an actor and as a human being. I think any actor who can turn down a role like that should hold back on calling themselves an artist.

PA: Homosexuality is still a big taboo for many Iranians (and Americans, and Iranian-Americans), so what were some of the challenges you face(d) with that role? What is the feedback you are getting from the community about this aspect of your work?

OA: Well, playing a homosexual certainly wasn’t easy for me. I had to overcome what little homophobia I had left in order to truly commit to the character. It’s something I am proud of and would share with anyone who cares to watch. Obviously, my parents were not too fond of that aspect of the character, but they still remained very supportive of me through the process. It’s funny, since the airing of Sleeper Cell, I have received my fair share of both hate mail and “love mail,” if you know what i mean. Some from the Persian community. [Editor's note: The controversial, definitely 18+ and not-safe-for-work clip is on YouTube.]

PA: Let’s talk about, well, your butt: was there much psyching yourself out to get naked on camera? And what sort of feedback are you getting on that, seeing as sex is still a fairly taboo point in Iranian culture, as well?

OA: The nudity part was really not a challenge for me. It’s something I have been free with my whole life. That said, I have been receiving a great deal of compliments from people about how much they liked my backside. Makes all those hours at the gym worth it.

PA: What can you tell us about your roles in the upcoming movies “Space Chimps,” “Ocean of Pearls,” and “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh”?

“Space Chimps” was my first attempt at being a voiceover actor. It is an animated feature by the same company that produced “Valiant” and “Happily N’Ever After.” I play a crazy Indian scientist who is in charge are of caring for the chimps. It was a lot of fun to do and I hope to do more of it in the future.

“Ocean of Pearls” was an independent film I shot in Detroit, Michigan. I was the lead in this film, and was in every scene. I played a Sikh-Canadian surgeon who comes to the United States to practice medicine and is exposed to the flaws in the American health care system. It was a very grueling filming process that took a little over a month but was well worth it.

“The Mysteries Of Pittsburgh” was another independent film, produced by Michael London (producer of “Sideways” and “The Illusionist,” among other films). It had a star-studded cast, with the likes of Jon Foster, Sienna Miller, Peter Sarsgaard, Nick Nolte, and Mena Suvari. That film marked the first time I played a Persian character, albeit a gay Persian character. This role gave me an opportunity to test out my comedic talents. My character, Mohammed, was a flamboyant, out-of-the-closet, fun FOB. With a thick Persian accent and over-the-top costumes, I had a lot of fun bringing this character to life from the script and the novel the film is based on.

PA: You grew up in the OC and now you live in LA, both places which are home to big Iranian communities. I’d venture to say you have quite a bit of experience, as an actor, negotiating the multiple identities you take on when you play different characters, which is, in a way, a parallel to what happens for many immigrant kids. as they learn to assimilate and make choices about how to do that. How has your experience growing up an Iranian-American shaped your acting, if at all?

OA: Growing up Iranian in America quickly taught me that I was different from most of my peers. And it was those differences that I embraced that allowed me to be both a unique person and a unique actor. I love being Iranian. I am very proud of our culture and our people and am not shy about sharing it with others.

PA: Finally, just from your experience growing up in Southern California, what do you see as some of the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian community there?

OA: I think the strengths of our community far outweigh our weaknesses. We are a very caring, loving, and nurturing culture. However, I feel we have a tendency to be too materialistic and too concerned about our appearances. But that’s a stereotype that’s already out there. It’s just sad that it’s true. I usually find all Iranians I run into very loving, and that is a quality I most enjoy about our people.

Laleh

Seeing Haale this weekend reminded me of another talented Iranian female musician, Laleh, who I first heard a year and a half ago. She lives in Sweden and won three Swedish Grammis in 2005 (best artist, best new artist, and best producer) for her self-titled debut album, which also happens to be trilingual – English, Swedish, and Persian songs are featured. My favorite song on that album was actually a Swedish song called Storebror, which is playful and fun. In fact, that’s what her whole style is – there’s no pseudo-seduction or pretense with this artist and she seems genuinely cool, which is true charisma. And her voice is strong and natural and her style incorporates acoustic and also slightly poppier sounds, but never the sort of over-processed, synthesizer-heavy stuff that makes most Iranian pop so saccharine and tough to listen to for long. Here’s the Storebror video, via YouTube:

Her sophomore album, Prinsessor, was released in Sweden just last month, and the video for one of its songs, November, has me sort of hooked. The lyrics start: Well, you know me/I’ve never been afraid/I always jumped into it/With my whole heart and no shame. Sounds like an anthem for 2007, no? Here’s the YouTube video:

Both her albums are next to impossible to find in the U.S., but the magic of iTunes makes the first one available for download online (the new album is only available on the Swedish iTunes store at the present time), and the new album can be purchased at CD Wow.

Haale

Just coming off a tour in California, Iranian artist Haale played at Tonic in NYC this weekend. Her style is equal parts whirling dervish and guitar god, and her voice is like a hurricane. She’s tiny in person, with dark curly hair that hides half her face as sings, and when she rocks out, you hardly know what hit you. It’s very transporting. Her band is really amazing, especially the guys on percussion, who use literally every limb to make music. There’s something about percussion-heavy music like this that makes a live show really worth checking out, so if she’s playing near you, go.

Haale’s EPs were just released this month, though unfortunately I couldn’t stay after the show to buy them and now I’m kicking myself because it looks like they’re not available online yet. I might be wrong on this stuff as I’m writing from memory, but Paratrooper (pictured below), is in English, and Sean Lennon sang on one of the songs. Morning is more Persian and features a ton of Rumi and Hafez lyrics. Also, Morning’s cover is a photograph by well-known Iranian artist Shirin Neshat.

Final word is that this is one of few and by far the coolest fusions of rock and traditional Iranian music I’ve ever heard. Here’s a minute-long clip from the show (that I might have to take down later, we’ll see!) – sorry for the awful lighting and camerawork, but at least you’ll get a taste of her live show.

Shabeh Jomeh

I was all set to write about how meeting Iranians in New York, my home for the last 7 months, is next to impossible, but that’s not really true because of Shabeh Jomeh. The phrase means “Friday eve” (aka Thursday night), and once a month, Iranians in major metropolitan cities, from Los Angeles to London, Seattle to Sydney, get together to meet each other and network.

I’ve been to Shabeh Jomeh once in Los Angeles and tonight was my second NYC Shabeh Jomeh, the first having been many months ago. It can be hard to show up at something like this alone, and indeed I haven’t yet, but people are very friendly and forthcoming with introductions, and while you definitely have your share of doctors/lawyers/engineers, there are lots of people who don’t fit in those categories (which is not to say that there’s anything wrong with any of those, and in fact, they’re all lovely). Tonight, for instance, I had a long conversation with a man who imports bicycles and whose family has been making bikes for three generations-who would have guessed? I also found a new dentist, and got invited to a birthday party. I found the New York Shabeh Jomeh thankfully lacking the meat-market vibe I sensed in L.A., which is really important, though, to be fair, I haven’t been to an L.A. Shabeh Jomeh in over a year.

If you want to meet more Iranians, get yourself on the mailing list for your city, get over your nerves, and get out there once a month, on Thursday night.

Wednesday Edition: Pars Links

Once a week, we’ll do a round-up of what’s going on in the Iranian community. Our first one was last Monday. If you see a link or story you think should be here, please send it to us at editorATparsarts.com.

Nazanin Saved
A girl who’d been sentenced to death for killing a guy in self-defense when he tried to rape her and her niece, Nazanin Fatehi (pictured) had her death sentence dropped this week. A big crusade was launched on her behalf by Nazanin Afshin-Jam, an Iranian-Canadian beauty queen, whose website, helpnazanin.com, is collecting donations to help with the blood money Fatehi will likely have to pay. Imagine having to pay the family of someone that tried to rape you. Though I suppose it’s better than being killed for nearly getting raped.

Film Festival Update
The Noor Film Festival has updated their films page to include the shorts they’ll be showing. Almost makes us wish we were in L.A. (almost), although their features aren’t new.

More on Iranian Blogging
The BBC has a nice list of quotes from different Iranian bloggers in response to the Islamic Republic’s new requirement of registering your blog with them. I wish they’d included links to the bloggers’ blogs, though. Isn’t that the point?

Iran, the Lady
Her book came out last week, but if you can’t get enough, Davar Ardalan has a pretty interesting website, which includes a schedule of appearances all over the U.S.

New is Good
Jadid Online (“jadid” means new) is mostly in Persian (yet another reason to brush up on our reading skills), but their About page is in English: “Jadid Online publishes reports by a new generation of journalists, mainly from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, pioneering new forms of multimedia journalism. They provide original snapshots of life in their societies in multimedia formats, from new angles, offering new voices and images[...] It was set up in 2005, and specialises in media development, training, and production with a focus on Iran, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the wider Islamic world.” Their programming is really high-quality and they have a few English-subtitled or voice-overed (is that a word?) stories available, on topics from the importance of TV satellites in Iran to the lives of carpet weavers in Qom. One small gripe is that there’s no date included for when these stories were produced/posted (not counting the copyright date), which is a bit important for context in news stories, even if they’re more news-magazine than current events oriented.

Art, Etc.
According to the BBC, it sounds like Isfahan’s developing at a rate that’s eating up its history. And speaking of eating history, the Telegraph has an interesting story about the battle over a frieze from Persepolis. The verdict will have huge repercussions in the art world.

Petition for Peace
The National Iranian American Council is urging people to call their congresspeople and urge them against war with Iran. You can enter your zipcode on their website to find out just who your congressperson is.

Iranian Artists at the Queens Museum (II)

A couple of weeks ago, we gave you the heads-up on artist Sara Rahbar who was part of the Queens Museum’s International exhibit which closed this Sunday. Visiting on the exhibit’s last day, I was surprised to find two other Iranian artists featured. Above is a debris-strewn room with Iranian items covered in dust: Persian rugs on the floor, a book of Forough Farrokhzad poems (this room was put together by Rahbar in collaboration with an Afghan women’s group in Queens). On one of the walls of this room was a projection of the Neda Sarmast documentary about Iranian youth, Nobody’s Enemy. It was very chilling to sit in this space that clearly acted as a model of a bombed home, especially while watching a film that included many people who might be critically and personally affected by a seemingly imminent Iran-America conflict brewing at the moment. Not many people stepped into the room – I suppose walking on dirt isn’t so appealing. But for those that did it was surely an immersive experience, as evidenced by the hushed tones they took on upon entry, as though they were at a funeral.

I was immediately drawn to Anahita Vossoughi’s painting, “The Touching Implication of You” (pictured). The artist was born in Canada and now lives in New York, and her work explores sexuality and sexual ambiguities really effectively. I love the androgyny in this painting; it reminded me of the work of Harvard professor Afsaneh Najmabadi in Women with Mustaches and Men Without Beards, which is all about how Western ideals of gender shaped Iranian ones. I wonder if an argument could be made here that perhaps Vossoughi’s art is an echo of pre-colonial Iran’s sexual culture? An interesting idea, in any case.