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Thursday, 13 January 2011

The Queen of Persia

*OFFTOPIC*
DOCUMENTARY THOUGHTS...!

As this might be a sensitive topic to some, read the following first(!):

Let me begin by declaring that I have no knowledge on the Iranian Revolution - although, its history is one of the many which interests me.
So all the little knowledge that I have absorbed was from a documentary called The Queen of Persia.
For all of you who are curious about the Iranian Revolution, particularly the royal family and for those of you who already know about its history, this documentary is a personal, intriguing insight into the life of Farah Diba, who once ruled Iran alongside the Shah and was forced into exile when the revolution took place.

I feel that this documentary highlights both sides of the story - why people are for or against the Shah and his regime during the revolution. Yet, I think that because this focuses on Farah, it's more of a one sided story - and I am one of those people who always wants to gain knowledge on both sides of a story before making any conclusions!




Iranian director Nahid Persson Sarvestani manages to gain exclusive access into the Farah's life. 30 years ago, Nahid protested against the Shah; though initially she doesn't mention this to Farah. Throughout her own childhood, she always held a fascination to the royal family's lifestyle, particularly Farah, who in Nahid's eyes (as well as other poor people) had everything one could wish for. Nahid seemed to have always been curious about Farah, following her life on TV at a young age, and then online after the exile.

The documentary also lights up on Nahid's own personal life, showing how she had to take refuge in different countries as a consequence of the revolution.
Throughout the documentary, Nahid initially attempts to hide her past by not revealing to Farah she protested against her (which held some kind of suspense throughout the documentary). The first time Farah does agree to meet Nahid, I felt very curious of how Farah would be like after so many years... how would her home be like? what would she dress like? how she would speak like? I had a lot of questions...

I wanted to watch this documentary over two days, but I was soo fascinated and more curious the more I watched... that I ended up watching it till the end...!

Initially, I assumed (naturally of course!) that Nahid will end up disliking Farah because of everything that's happened in the past. Nahid ended up losing her brother after he was accused of supporting the overthrow of the Shah.

On their first meeting, Nahid asks Farah a couple of questions. From that point on, they arrange other meetings to film and manage to form a light bond of friendship. Only for that bond to be broken as Farah managed to find out about Nahid's past and starts to doubt exactly what the documentary is about and what Nahid's intentions really are. And the documentary is then put on hold.... until 6 months go by and Nahid sends Farah a trailer for the documentary she has put together so far, in hope to convince her once more that her intentions for filming her are truly genuine and there is no catch. Farah agrees to film once more and the documentary continues...

The rest of the documentary becomes more and more personal, shedding some light on different aspects of Farah's life. The camera follows her to personal and public events and we get to watch her as she is. We almost feel attached to her in some way... Even Nahid starts to get confused about where her documentary is heading at this point, as she witnesses that Farah isn't actually who she was expecting her to be. Nahid befriends Farah and starts to feel very close and comfortable with her.




We are able to see Farah mourning for her loved ones, leading a busy life as she tries to answer her fan mails, organising and attending charity events... it's almost as if everyday and every hour is filled with her having something important to do. Which was very surprising, because I assumed that for someone in exile, they would most likely live a life in hiding.
But Farah manages to divide her time in 2 countries - Paris and Washington D.C.

Like Nahid, Farah was nothing like the person I began painting a picture of before watching the documentary. She has shown herself to be a humble, generous, dignified, inspirational and a strong woman. To this day, she defends her late husband's doing vigorously maintain his image. You can feel how passionate she is about her country and just how much she misses it. At the age of over 70 years old now, I can only imagine exactly what she has been through... and that is why I am planning to read this book!
I'm also looking to read the other side of the story...but still deciding which book to get on that (any suggestions?). The book below got a lot of mixed reviews - either they were very good or really bad!


You can watch the documentary here. Or go to channel 4's website and type in 'Queen of Persia' in the search box.



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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice! I've always been interested in her & I definitely want to read her book sometime...

Anonymous said...

cette traînée mérite le fouet et la corde

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