IRAN
AUTUMN 2009
- Wait for me outside.
- Yes ma'am.
You're late!
Here, this is for you.
Again, congratulations on your book!
Good Bye.
For my dear Shirin.
"The Rhino's Last Poem'
- Sahel, where are we going?
- Be patient.
- Why are we going this way'?
- I said be patient.
Slop, here!
Slop, slop.
Come with me.
Do you know why I brought you here?
No, why?
I go home this way a lot,
by this tree.
- It's beautiful, isn't it?
- Yes, really beautiful.
Believe it or not...
...I talk to this tree,
and it talks back!
I sit beside it for hours and write.
We wrote 'The Rhino' together.
It was my inspiration.
You don'! believe me?
Not really.
Come, I want to show you
my secret library.
What do you want from the soil?
Haven't they set you free?
They opened the ground,
and covered your signs
They have announced you dead
Whether you're dead or alive
No one knows
Sew your lips
Carry the walls on your shoulders
And leave
May your mother rest in peace.
When she passed away...
...your whole family left.
Your father is the
only one who stayed.
Mina also left for Istanbul
at the same time.
I don'! have any news of her.
We don'! know if she could
go to Europe or not.
Mr. Sahel, when you arrive to
Istanbul, someone will pick you up.
Dada promised to find Mina for you.
Name?
Sahel
Louder!
Sahel.
- And your fucking last name?
- Falzan.
Other than these ridiculous poems,
what else have you written?
ISTANBUL Winter 2010
Come inside, come in.
Sahel, brother.
There's actually someone else
staying here...
...but they're never around.
Don'! worry.
This is your bed.
It's clean and comfortable.
There's a TV for you, a mobile phone.
Anything you need,
you just let me know.
I'm taking you to Karim's office in
Aksaray. Dada's waiting for us there.
Dada is the king of Istanbul.
Brother, what are you thinking about?
You aren't smiling.
Smile, laugh.
You're in Istanbul, brother!
Istanbul is nice!
The girls are beautiful.
But Iranian girls are more beautiful.
Hey, what do you think you're doing?
There's a line here!
Unbelievable!
Before you arrived from Iran...
we worked on your case
for over two months.
There are more than
All of them have been investigated.
No other organization can do what we do
...as fast as we do it.
Something important happened.
Yesterday, we found your wife's address.
This is good news.
But there is a problem.
Your wife has a file here.
In theory, no Iranians
should have a file here...
...unless someone is looking
for them and came to us.
In this case, someone
opened a file on her.
Six years ago, someone
was looking for your wife.
- Who?
- Akbar Rezai.
- Who?
- Akbar Rezai.
Do you know him?
No.
It doesn't matter.
You were in prison for 30 years.
Maybe she got remarried.
Don'! worry.
I'm going to give you Mina's address.
In a few days, I'll get you
Akbar's address too.
Safak!
Safak!
Bring me Mina's file.
Good morning, our car broke down.
Can you help us?
The place we are going is nearby.
We have a really important meeting.
Hi.
Hello?
Emrah?
Fuck you! The car broke down!
It doesn't work, I'm telling you!
Don'! tell me not to scream!
How many times do I have to tell you,
unzip your jacket!
Can you feel how the
leeches are sucking out
the dilly blood of your
Kerim!
What?
Where are you?
I'm coming! Why are you shouting?
Do you recognize this guy'?
It's Akbar Rezai.
Take a good look.
University?
Family'? Relatives?
Maybe from work?
From prison?
I mention prison because
my guys say that...
...he was in the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard.
He was well-connected.
He settled here 6 years ago.
He doesn't go back to Iran any more.
My guys found out about him.
Before settling here for good...
...he used to come and go for years.
He visits your wife a lot.
Your wife's children say that
he's not their father.
They insist to the neighbours
that their father died.
So they are yours!
Are they you!-5?
- Are you sure?
- Yes.
Really sure?
The last time you saw your wife was
in prison, think about it carefully.
- Here.
- Thanks.
You want to play'?
What?
Your apparition fades away
It falls on the water
You look at it
The moment halls
It also looks
A spider arrives
It mixes the moment
with its sticky saliva
It weaves a web from time
You are hunted... it leaves you
A spider the size of a
Of a spider
The sky darkens, clears, darkens
The tree gasps for air to dry its sap.
Go pick up Mina.
Take her to her uncle's house.
When she is done bring her back home.
Got it?
Go!
"The Rhino's Last Poem'
'By Sahel Farzan"
Go.
What are you doing?
Slop!
I said slop!
Slop!
I am in love with you.
You scum!
You dilly little son of a bitch!
Take care of this trash.
Down with the Shah!
Down with the Shah!
IRANIAN REVOLUTION 1979
Down with the Shah
Down with the Shah
Oh prophet, the light of the people,
Oh Khomeini, the light of the nation
Come on, move it.
Get rid of that garbage!
Put them in the vehicle!
- Sir, what do you want us to do?
- Confiscate everything they have
Come on, hurry UP!
Go!
Sahel Farzan, Son of Ghasem.
Of the Sunni faith, Born in Baneh,
Iranian Kurdistan.
You are accused of having written
political poems...
...against the holy regime of
the Islamic Republic of Iran.
You have also collaborated
with hostile groups...
...whose aim is to overthrow
the holy Islamic Republic.
You are sentenced to a
term of 30 years in prison
Mina Darakhshani, daughter of Rahim.
Of the Shiite faith, born in Tehran.
You are accused of having collaborated
with your husband Sahel Farzan...
...who wrote political poems against
the holy Islamic Republic.
You are hereby sentenced
to 10 years in prison.
Where did you meet each other,
motherfucker?
Al the university.
How much do you love your wife?
Answer! How much do you love her?
Did you fuck her every day?
How many limes did you fuck her
underwater, you bastard?
How did you fuck her
son of a bitch, huh?
Say something!
Name?
Mina.
Your father was a royalist?
No, just a colonel.
Do you know Sahel?
I'm talking to you! Do you know him?
Yes.
He's my husband.
How long have you been married?
Two years.
Have you had relations
with other men?
No, never!
Tell the truth!
That is the truth.
Your signature on the divorce papers.
I won'! sign this.
Sign it, I said!
I'm not going lo.
Why should I have to divorce him?
He never wrote political poems.
Come on, gel up. This is useless.
We should send them,
her and her bastard husband...
...off to the same fate
as her traitorous father
Let's go, Haji
Whose blade tumbles on her body?
An absolute white fills your eyes
why'?
Your closed fist presses inside
It lights a match under the water
A thorn is stuck in your throat
It keeps you there
No closer, no further
You will wail
In the purgatory of a thorn
You will float
And no one will notice
When a poem dies in you
Its corpse will stall lo smell
The corpse that they
have left of you falling
eyelid of a horse,
half-asleep, half-awake...
Look through the eyelid of that horse
A salt-field vanishes in the wind
Come on, let's help this guy!
Everyone together!
One, two, three.
What's wrong with you?
Are you drunk or something?
Hey this guy's not from around here,
we have to help him out.
One, two, three!
OK, thanks everyone!
Thanks a lot.
Take a right.
You answer this.
Your phone is supposed
to be turned off!
Hello?
No. Wrong number.
I said wrong number!
Don'! call back!
Tum off your phone, Buse
You got it?
There are plenty of others
who want to work for me.
Take a left!
OK stop, stop right here.
You wail in the car.
Don't forget your bag.
Come on, Miss Buse.
Don'! forget, you're
paid to make them happy.
I've been looking for you
for five years.
If you want...
...I can get you out of here.
What about my husband?
I want to see him.
Your husband's release
isn't up to me.
It's very difficult.
Mina.
I can set you free! Mina!
Don'! go! We can live together!
Mina!
Hey. gel up, gel up, move it!
Your request has been granted.
You can see your bastard husband
one last time.
Let's go, you whore!
Raise your arms, please.
Come.
Nola single word!
And don't take this off your head
Go.
- Mina!
- Sahel!
My love.
Sahel.
Mina Derakhshani.
You're hereby released.
Sign this paper.
Take your children from the nursery.
- What about my husband?
- We have no news about your husband.
- I want to see him!
- Please go now!
What is happening
in your inverted shell?
What roof is it that you call home?
Two turtles have fallen on their back
They scratch their shells
against this cold ground
Astray and forlorn
Astray and forlorn
They have announced you dead
You hold your breath under the water
A vulture wanders in the air
Mehdi Khosravi?
Keep to the side, don't crowd.
Maryam Esmaili?
- Sahel Farzan?
- Yes.
Reza Shafiyi?
Excuse me.
- Nasrin Hamzeh?
- Yes.
Where is the body?
Excuse me, I want to see the body.
Buried in heathens' cemetery.
Don'! stand there, move along.
- Fereshteh Khosravi?
- Yes.
Your tomb is shown
The chariot of prayers spins around...
...sprinkling curses.
In the Curse Land, there are
supposed to be dead-bodies...
with living disappeared corpses
A hand blesses
It covers
From the seeds of blasphemy
some plants have grown:
The plants have witnessed the astray
empty tombs,
Whose curse is it upon this land?
Oh causeless land
Oh ailing ill land
Whose hills wail with clear cold howls
My condolences.
My door is always open to you.
My house is yours.
Help me, for the love of God.
I'm still in love with you.
Help me, I beg you.
Mina!
You still want to run away from here?
I'm tired of being in this prison.
Give me our passports,
I just want to go.
I know you hale me.
No, I don't hate you.
Let me take the kids with me.
They are my children too.
It they knew that I am their father,
maybe they won't leave.
I've told you a thousand times.
If you want to go, go alone.
I won'! go without them.
Wow, check out Mister's house!
Do you need help?
I'm not a prostitute!
Today was the 14th man
I slept with so far.
And look what happened.
But we need money.
Me and my mother want to leave, go
to Europe. We just need 3000 Euros.
'If the other makes my blood tainted
My hand will not let go of my vein'
These verses are the only thing
left of my father.
Her father is an Iranian Poet.
Mom.
Breath crystals in the frost of camphor
Between two pulses,
stone sparks on stone
Air is a dagger
Water is a dagger
Only the one living on the border
Will create a land
'Only the one living on the border
Will create a land"
Mr. Akbar, someone
is here to see you.
The earth is a solid salt plate
A rhino drops its head, and licks
With an empty mouth, it chews...
...and chews...
Then it spits out the
dregs of the season
Over there, a bit further
Your skin cloths in rhino season
Mom.