Film: The Green Wave
Running time: 80 mins
Director: Ali Samadi Ahadi
Starring: Navíd Akhavan, Payam Akhavan, Shirin Ebadi, Pegah Ferydoni, Mitra Khalatbari
Genre: Documentary
Country: Germany
This film will be screened at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival, which takes place in London between 23rd March and 1st April, 2011. Find out more about this event by clicking here.
Fourth offering from Azeri/Iranian director Ali Samadi Ahadi mixes animation, live footage and interviews in a sobering documentary about the controversial presidential election in Iran 2009. Although the subject matter has already been tackled by many others, for example The Real Fake (2010) and For Neda (2010), it still is a pervasive topic as the situation in Iran remains very much unchanged to this day.
The film charts the lead up to and aftermath of the Iranian elections in June 2009, where it is widely acknowledged that the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tampered with results to give himself the majority vote. While it is impossible to conclusively verify or disprove the authenticity of the results, it is clear that in the days following Ahmadinejad’s success, the streets of Tehran and many other cities quickly filled with thousands of protesters voicing their anger.
In the weeks and month afterwards, violence erupted onto the streets as the military opened fire on the demonstrators. News outlets, media and the internet were all subject to heavy censorship, while hundreds of protesters, including journalists, were all arrested, imprisoned and tortured…
The Green Wave contains interviews from notable figures such as Shirin Ebadi and blogger Mehdi Mohseni, who alongside many other online activists, played an integral part in disseminating information about the protests to foreign media around the world. It is important to note the role of technology and the internet during this period, as websites such as Twitter and Facebook provided an essential platform to let others around the world know about the atrocities happening in Iran.
Throughout the film, Twitter feeds from June 2009 posted by the interviewees punctuate the scenes, capturing their immediate reactions, such as the shock and disbelief as the election results emerge. Much of the footage of the protests also comprises of mainly amateur video clips from bystanders, such as the infamous death of Neda Agha-Soltan. Videos such as these spread quickly online, and helped make people aware of the situation at a time when all news was censored, and foreign media broadcasts jammed in Iran.
The choice to mix this live footage with ‘motion comic’ style animation creates a powerful and moving statement. Each scene is beautifully drawn and coloured, accompanied by narration compiled from the thousands of first hand blog accounts detailing the events of 2009. These scenes, when juxtaposed alongside the shaky, gruesome video footage of the violence, immediately jolts you back into reality as you remember that these are real bullets, being shot at real people. The effect this has is similar to the end of Waltz With Bashir, in which harrowing news footage mirroring the animation is shown, shocking people with the reality of the situation.
Moreover, the animation in the film is also as much a stylistic choice as it is a practical one, for the task of filming in a country where foreign journalism is banned altogether is simply impossible. Therefore, the live footage and animation used in The Green Wave provides an alternative to the traditional documentary format, simply because there is a lack of real news footage of the protests of 2009.
The film is disturbing, at times, due to its imagery and immediacy, as the fact is all of these atrocities occurred less than two years ago, and many people are still imprisoned for political reasons in Iran today. It is possible to argue that the amount of footage showing real people being shot at, attacked or run over by the militia also desensitises you to violence somehow. Nevertheless, The Green Wave finishes on an optimistic note, with the animated characters vowing to rebuild the country they love. It is a hopeful, timid cry, but one which the people of Iran must believe in, and fight for.
Regardless of your knowledge on Middle Eastern politics, The Green Wave is a digestible piece of cinema that aims to inform and educate viewers about one of the most sinister and corrupt governments in power today. KW
No comments:
Post a Comment