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Bassidji
Iran/CH/F 2009 114'
Director: Mehran Tamadon
Camera: Madjid Gorjan
Sound: Jérôme Cuendet
Editing: Andrée Davanture, Rodolph Molla
Production: Tamadon / Road Film, Box Productions
Bassidji
Basiji
Mehran Tamadon
In Iran, the director confronts the chiefs of the bassidji, the governmental militia for a totalitarian regime, with his questions.
Are the questions asked in this film by director
Mehran Tamadon sufficient to allow for
an understanding of the principles of a totalitarian
discourse? Are his questions sufficient
for him, an Iranian living in France, to
grasp a country that is his but in which he
no longer feels at home?
Mehran Tamadon’s only weapons are a camera,
a microphone and a long string of probing
questions. He sets out in search of the
BASSIDJI, the popular militia created in 1980
and whose militants joined the official army
at the time of Saddam Hussein’s attack on
Iran and who mostly died in the war. The
role now of the bassidji is as guardians of
the Islamic revolution. In order to confront
them, he questioned individuals for two
years, without hiding his identity or his
intentions. He follows them to former battlefields
where they come in their hundreds
to mourn their martyrs, sacrificed to the
war. He participates in meetings where, in
the cover of darkness, the bassidji weep for
their martyrs and pray that they may themselves
be as valiant and devout. He followed
one of the militia who travels through the
streets of Tehran on a motor scooter and
who is responsible for ensuring that the official
precepts of interpretation of Islam are
respected.
For the film, he puts in place a system by
which Iranians can address themselves indirectly
through a recorder to the bassidji
chiefs, to express their reserves and doubts.
He also tries to confront them with his experiences
in the West; he lives the life of an
infidel with his partner without being married,
while they refuse even to look a woman
in the eyes.
Mehran Tamadon tries tirelessly to understand.
He participates passionately in verbal
jousting, arguing and reasoning. At last,
almost at the end of his strength, he hits a
wall. Has he asked one question too many?
Visions du Réel Nyon 2009
Internet
