Gone with the wind
An interesting, if occasionally slow and overtly polemical adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's beloved American classic, filmed and set in Iran the year after the CIA-led deposition of liberal president Mossadeq. The necessary updating of the Civil War setting to modern-day Iran requires that we see the incoming Shah Pahlavi and his family as the rapacious Yankees and carpetbaggers, while the noble, tradition-revering Southerners become a diverse group of liberal progressives incensed by US interference and much given to stomping on the Stars and Stripes and burning effigies of Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Rooney in the streets of Tehran. Sarfitta Oharakiri, a spoiled young Persian princess, is bored by the coup and more interested in getting handsome dreamy Ashkaban to marry her... but he is pledged to his cousin, the simple and good Melamoodi, so Sarfitta runs away to Tehran where she scandalizes the good townsfolk by giving them the first demonstration of the hand-jive they have ever seen, at a fundraiser for the Ayatollah. She also consorts with Reza Batlari, a sexy if unscrupulous horse trader from Saudi Arabia who is suspected of collaboration with the Shah. Years pass, people die and Sarfitta opens an opium den in the heart of the souk which makes her incredibly rich - mostly because she gets American secret service agents addicted to the hookah. When the Shah's forces crack down on the Tehranis, Ashkaban falls to pieces, Melamoodhi dies in a suicide bombing and Reza walks out on Sarfitta, telling her "My dear, I don't give a damn. Alu Akbar!" Sarfitta, weeping through her chador decides to return to her ancestral goat shack, Tararizm, declaring that tomorrow is another day. Several elements of the original story are missing (such as the slaves, although these ordinary 1950s Iranians sure do have a lot of English au-pairs in the story) and the decision to tell much of the story in elaborate music-and-dance sequences tends to confuse the action, the more so because the lyrics are apparently impossible to translate. There's also rather a lot of gun and rifle brandishing and enthusiastic beating of women, all of whom become more and more difficult to identify as the Tehranis enthusiastically embrace the veil; the fundraising ball, for instance, resembles feeding time at the Penguin House, or one of the weirder sequences in Eyes Wide Shut. Nevertheless, Sarfitta and her faithful au pair Mandy are beautifully played, even if Sarfitta smacks her rather a lot for no apparent reason while ululating shrilly and invoking Allah.
- Runtime
- 1h 40m
- Released
- 1954
Details
Release year: 1954
Storyline
An interesting, if occasionally slow and overtly polemical adaptation of Margaret Mitchell's beloved American classic, filmed and set in Iran the year after the CIA-led deposition of liberal president Mossadeq. The necessary updating of the Civil War setting to modern-day Iran requires that we see the incoming Shah Pahlavi and his family as the rapacious Yankees and carpetbaggers, while the noble, tradition-revering Southerners become a diverse group of liberal progressives incensed by US interference and much given to stomping on the Stars and Stripes and burning effigies of Marilyn Monroe and Mickey Rooney in the streets of Tehran. Sarfitta Oharakiri, a spoiled young Persian princess, is bored by the coup and more interested in getting handsome dreamy Ashkaban to marry her... but he is pledged to his cousin, the simple and good Melamoodi, so Sarfitta runs away to Tehran where she scandalizes the good townsfolk by giving them the first demonstration of the hand-jive they have ever seen, at a fundraiser for the Ayatollah. She also consorts with Reza Batlari, a sexy if unscrupulous horse trader from Saudi Arabia who is suspected of collaboration with the Shah. Years pass, people die and Sarfitta opens an opium den in the heart of the souk which makes her incredibly rich - mostly because she gets American secret service agents addicted to the hookah. When the Shah's forces crack down on the Tehranis, Ashkaban falls to pieces, Melamoodhi dies in a suicide bombing and Reza walks out on Sarfitta, telling her "My dear, I don't give a damn. Alu Akbar!" Sarfitta, weeping through her chador decides to return to her ancestral goat shack, Tararizm, declaring that tomorrow is another day. Several elements of the original story are missing (such as the slaves, although these ordinary 1950s Iranians sure do have a lot of English au-pairs in the story) and the decision to tell much of the story in elaborate music-and-dance sequences tends to confuse the action, the more so because the lyrics are apparently impossible to translate. There's also rather a lot of gun and rifle brandishing and enthusiastic beating of women, all of whom become more and more difficult to identify as the Tehranis enthusiastically embrace the veil; the fundraising ball, for instance, resembles feeding time at the Penguin House, or one of the weirder sequences in Eyes Wide Shut. Nevertheless, Sarfitta and her faithful au pair Mandy are beautifully played, even if Sarfitta smacks her rather a lot for no apparent reason while ululating shrilly and invoking Allah.