"I'm mad and I'm not gonna take it anymore"

Those who laud the American do or die spirit and hate that “axis of evil” country Iran should take a closer look at what a couple of Iranian filmmakers are doing. Compare the raft of shit that floated through our movie theaters this summer to what these two guys are doing. Sounds like that American do or die spirit is alive and well, in Iran. I’d be flabbergasted to see a major Hollywood studio take these kinds of risks to tell a good story.

From Studio Briefing:

The Venice Film Festival was plunged into international controversy Tuesday when an Iranian director charged that authorities in his country had confiscated his film and that he had to smuggle out a digital copy to present at the festival. Babak Payami’s film, Silence Between Two Thoughts, concerns a Taliban soldier ordered to rape a female prisoner so that she will not be able to enter paradise. In an interview with Reuters, Payami said, “They didn’t even see my film before they confiscated it.” Another Iranian director, Abolfazl Jalili, who had been scheduled to appear Monday with his film Abjad (The First Letter), about a Muslim boy who falls in love with a Jewish girl, did not appear at the festival after Iranian authorities reportedly refused to authorize his trip.

That’s just it though. The studios don’t have to take any risks, except commercially, to tell a story like that. I don’t get it. We have this great freedom to say what we want, and yet we limit ourselves. These guys, and I’d add Abbas Kiarostami to that list, work around all the limitations they have.

One final thought, organized religion is the great silencer no matter what country you’re in. Listening: (none)