Accusing Abbas Kiarostami of having no politics in his films…
Accusing Abbas Kiarostami of having no politics in his films is like trying to make films for the filmmaker—it’s like wishing that person is another person and this wish is often based on a cynical assumption that all people (especially people known to the public) are infinitely mutable because they are infinitely fake.
These same people, like Jonathan Curiel of The San Francisco Chronicle, admit that Kiarostami is banned in Iran but somehow he has not done enough to curse his land, sow the ground with salt, marry the alleged twin sister of Kofi Anan’s wife, and move to a small town in Nebraska. When Americans behave this way, the sane and educated person cannot ignore the colonial and imperial heritage, that makes Pollyanna such a bitch. It would not surprise me to find the same Jonathan Curiel saying that Spike Lee is “too political” and would provide additional unsolicited revisions to several of his films.
My explanation for the American desire to “keep it real” and “make it plain” comes from American materialism and militarism. When your position is being bombed by friendly fire you don’t give a damn about subtext and symbolism in communication, you want the bombing to stop so get on the horn loud and clear. This no-nonsense attitude does not go away in so-called “peace time.” This historical and real need to be simple and plain becomes an American tradition and gets mistaken too often for wisdom. My use of the word ‘mistaken’ is backed up by Son of God because Jesus always spoke to the gentiles in parables. So unless you want to see John Wayne slapping Jesus around making his dreadlocks flail about as The Duke screams, “Speak straight!,” you better recognize…
The presence of the automobile in almost all of the Abbas Kiarostami films I have seen, including Taste of Cherry and Ten, contains the lion’s share of the politics Jonathan Curiel and the Daughters of the American Revolution are looking for… Any simple and plain American would assume that Iran having so much oil wealth would have automobiles coming out of everyone’s ass. However, in Taste of Cherry this is clearly not the mufukkin case. You would assume that such a wealthy country would solve all of its social problems with wads of cash buying the finest educations the world has ever seen, but the car in Ten, driven by the captivating Mania Akbari, serves as a pitiful confessional for the breakdown of the modern family. Yes, Iran has spoiled brats and victims of divorce too.