Friday, December 09, 2005
Hajji Washington
On one of the State Seda-O-Sima Channels of the IRI they played a cut-up version of “Hajji
I have to see the uncensored version someday, but tonight, it was a sophisticated dream sequence that played out in the movie; everything from the style of acting, the looks, the direction of the cameras, and the characters left me in complete awe of it and wonder at the values of the dialogue that goes on between Entezami (acting as the first Ambassador to the U.S during Nasr-ol-Din’s reign) and the other characters.
I never knew this sort of movie existed for Iranians, that the fantasies of sophisticated artists were so enrapturing and significant during their time and so eternal in their circumstances and plots. I think, in terms of “Hajji
Relating to the movie “Hajji Washington” simple facial expressions, pantomimes, situations, and even the erratic sense of duty with which the Ambassador places Pistacchios on the U.S President’s desk and anyone else who cares to accept; not being able to understand or translate American culture and society from his own one ocean and one sea and one long stretch of desert away he is confronted little by little with the falling of his humanity in waves of lunacy and sadness and the perpetual rise and take-off of the American way; his whole world spins slower and slower with no one to grant mercy on him while a new age dawns around him with the first steps of Irano-USA relations.
It’s not exactly an epic tragedy of Iran-USA relations…nothing really goes on about anyone else except Entezami’s character and characters who interact with him, so this is not a tribute to what happens afterwards or what happened before, it’s about the view from the moments in-between.
