(This article was originally produced by Poison Tongue Movie: dsmovie)
Sir is looking forward to this year's Oscars. (The 89th Academy Awards will take place on February 26)
Not only because of the popular seeds such as "Philharmonic City", "Manchester by the Sea", "Moonlight Boy", but also because of the current world political turmoil, let us have more humanitarian appeals to the Oscars, one of the world's most eye-catching cultural events, than ever before.
Sure enough, a while ago, the president of the United States gave Oscar a problem.
The "victim" was called Asha Farhati.
He is one of the most high-profile directors in Iran in recent years.
This year, he was nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for his work "The Salesman". (The last time was "A Parting" and it ended up winning.) ）
However, because of his nationality, he violated the "ban on Muhammad" signed by the recent us president Donald Trump.
This is likely to result in Asha Farhati and the entire "Salesman" crew not being able to participate in this year's Oscars.
Sir had no intention of talking about politics, but rather wanted to give Ashar a standing ovation for his response: he did not protest with a burst of green muscles, nor did he insinuately condemn, but only issued a restrained and calm statement.
In this statement, he does not seem to care about whether he can participate in the Oscars, but rather expresses deep understanding and concern about the current crisis of faith in the world.
Sir excerpted a part for you to see —
This is not limited to the United States, but also in my country.
For years, totalitarians on both sides of the ocean (hardliners) have tried to present their peoples with unrealistic and frightening images of diverse races and cultures in order to turn their differences into negation, negation into hostility, and hostility into fear. This constant instilling fear in the people is an important tool for extreme domination, justifying individual parochialism and fanaticism.
However, I think that human beings living on the same earth, despite coming from different countries, are far more similar in culture and belief than they are in disagreement.
Frankly, this apprehension is in line with the spirit of his work.
He can always spare no effort to explore the spiritual world of people with delicate brushstrokes, showing how individual choices and social status quo are interdependent.
In the narrative of the small and the big, the helplessness and sadness of the characters who are wrapped up in the times are found.
Ashar has made not many films, not a single bad one.
"A Parting", "Salesman", "About Eli", "Past", "Fireworks Wednesday"
There are always two words that cannot be separated from Iran.
As a native Iranian, Ashar has an irrepressible concern for Iranian society.
The most famous is 2011's "A Parting".
This is the first Iranian film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, ranking among the Douban Movies Top250, 8.7 perennial.
At the beginning of the story, we are thrown a dilemma - whether to move abroad for the future of our daughter, or to stay at home for the health of the elderly.
The wife wants to leave, the husband wants to stay.
On the surface, this is a husband and wife affair, but what is involved behind it is the current Iranian middle class's indecision in the face of Western temptation. When your country is not as good as you like, and you have the opportunity to leave, will you leave?
Later, because of the short separation, the husband hired an hourly worker to take care of the elderly, because of the friction at work, the husband pushed the part-time worker, so the latter miscarried.
The wife returned at this time, and she hoped that her husband would "confess his guilt."
On the surface, this is a matter of losing money or not, but behind it is the dignity of the husband, why should he admit the fault he bears.
So, even if he finally decided to lose money, he forced the nanny to swear by the Quran, and the other party did not lie for the money.
The problem is thrown to the nanny again, at this time, is it to complete the debt-laden family, or to be loyal to the faith?
At the end, the couple, who have experienced twists and turns, wait in the hallway of the courtroom for the divorce verdict. The corridor was crowded, and the two stood on each side, relatively silent.
The only soundtrack in the film sounds, and the film ends here.
Did they eventually divorce? I don't know.
Even if they don't get divorced today, will they later? You should know.
In A Parting, Ashar Farhati abandons clear judgments of right and wrong, "cunningly" presenting a dilemma in which everyone is wrong, each accusing as a victim, but he or she is the perpetrator of the other person.
The whole film is wonderful, through the separation of an ordinary couple, it has torn out Iranian society: modern and traditional, morality and law, faith and reality, marriage and love, the separation of the middle class and the bottom people.
Who directed this lose-lose game? You and me? You and I he made up this country?
2009's About Eli continues to focus on the rift between the individual and reality.
The story begins with several couples on a beach vacation with children.
Also accompanied were a single man and woman— the newly divorced Iranian man Amoud and the beautiful teacher Ellie.
The housewife Sebid wants to match the man and woman.
Unfortunate accidents soon occurred, a child fell into the water, Ellie disappeared, after calling the police, under the police questioning, Sebid had to tell part of the truth - Ellie has long been engaged. (In Iranian society, it is morally depraved for a woman with a marriage contract to meet a strange man.)
Eli's fiancé arrives on the news, and the three couples who participate in the trip are once again in trouble, especially Sebid, who knows the most.
Did she choose to continue to cover up the truth and maintain a semblance of tranquility? Or face the allegations head-on?
Once again, Ashar Farhati has touched the country's dark and sensitive areas through innocent but selfish struggles.
Behind the suspense, it points to the emotional confusion of Iranian women, the conflict between moral choices and religious etiquette.
The same is true of "The Salesman," which was nominated for an Oscar.
The story is about a couple who live in a residential building that is about to undergo major construction and have to move.
But after moving, the wife was invaded by strangers while taking a bath at home and was molested and abused.
After investigation, the husband found that the previous tenant was a prostitute, and the perpetrator was actually the prostitute's former client, who was a poor old man.
A horrific violent crime pulls out the general anxiety of the Iranian middle class about marriage and career.
It can be said that as the representative of the third generation of Iranian films, Ashar has changed the world's perception of Iranian films.
Before that, most people's iranian movies were still stuck in "Little Shoes" and "Lover Under the Olive Tree"... This traditional, simple, poetic impression.
In Ashar's work, we see for the first time an Iran in which modernity and tradition are at odds, and East and West are at odds with each other.
As we all know, Iran's domestic censorship is no worse than ours. Panahi, who was sentenced to 6 years in prison and banned filmmaking for 20 years, said: "In Making movies in Iran, 80% of our energy and time are spent negotiating with the authorities to obtain approval, and 20% are spent making movies." ”
But even under pressure, people like Asha Farhati don't give up an artist's sense of cultural responsibility.
This is a place worth pondering in contemporary Chinese cinema.
In 2012, "A Parting" made even the most rookie fans look at Iranian movies with disdain, and we lamented why Iranian movies with more and heavier shackles conquered the Oscars one step earlier than us?
Film critic Zhang Xiaobei's words impressed Sir deeply -
This kind of film has basically no reference value for Chinese films.
It's no longer a question of cinematic skills, but the gap between values and beliefs in society as a whole. There's no way to make up for it.
Now, Ashar Farhati is nominated for the Oscar for the second time, and whether we are in the final five or not, Sir is embarrassed to shout about the works in the past few years.
Today's Chinese films are either brutalized by censorship or surrendered to the market.
Olympic bid films over the years: "Tang Xuanzang", "Get out, tumor Jun", "Nightingale", "1942", "Search"
Finally, revisit the speech of Asha Farhati, who won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for "A Parting".
There are many people in the world watching us at this very moment
I'll assume that they're happy and they're not happy because of the Oscars
It's because of the moment
Politicians will no longer describe their home country, Iran, as frequent war tensions
This time it was because of its great civilization that resounded across the globe
I dedicate this prize to my fellow citizens
Frankly speaking, the oscar results of Chinese films are not important at all.
Sir and you should care that when we look back at today's images decades later, what can we dedicate to our fellow citizens?
The Great Wall? "Traces"? Or "Legend of the Fengshen Gods"?
The picture in this article comes from the network
"A Parting", "About Ellie", "Salesman" A station have to watch
Editorial Assistant: Natalie Potter Isa
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