1359

Iran, 2011, 110 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Saman Saloor.

1359 is a film that takes up the very popular theme from so many Iranian films, the Iran- Iraq War of the 1980s. The first ten minutes or so of the film have graphic presentation of an attack, a group of soldiers being defeated, wounded, some dying. The film then moves forward twenty years, and the focus is on the veterans who seem to be neglected in the new Iran.

In a parallel to the treatment of the mother in coma in the German film, Goodbye Lenin, the family of one of the wounded men, the commander, rally round him so that when he comes out of coma unexpectedly, they try to persuade him that it is only a short time since he was wounded. There are quite some elaborate plans and execution of plans to convince him.

However, when he becomes conscious, he leaves the hospital, wanders the city seeking old friends, discovers the changes in himself, in the city, and ultimately with his friends. He is very critical of his friends and how they have lived their lives since the war, especially one who is a drug addict.

When the friends and family and the doctors discover what has happened, they find him with the friends on the top of a hill – concerned that he will jump over the cliff. However, the film gives an opportunity for reflection on what the men suffered during the war, the consequences (reminiscent of the American treatment of many Vietnam War veterans on their return).

There is a final plea at the end, as the former commander reviews his now-ageing troops who salute him, that there should be a recognition of what these men did for their country in such a critical time.

1. The impact of the Iraq- Iran War? Decades later? The fate of the veterans? The challenge to understanding and sympathy?

2. The Iranian context? Universal themes (US and Vietnam, Russia and Afghanistan)?

3. The vivid war scenes, the heroism, desperation, the bonds between the men, the symbolism of the snake, the attack, the wounded? Graphic experience of war?

4. Teheran after twenty years, the soldier in coma, his situation, to turn off the support systems or continue? The tests? The doctors and their different opinions? His daughter? The language of miracles? His waking?

5. The doctor and his expertise and opinion? The younger doctor and his wanting to terminate? The agreement to do the review? The emotional responses?

6. The soldier waking up, response, the doctor’s family and friends not wanting to upset him? The elaborate set-up, the set, the film director, the pretence? The ward? The role of the director, his technical expertise? The old newspaper? The performers with their earphones? The nurse and her role-playing? The veterans coming, the holding of auditions?

7. The soldier’s daughter, his never having seen her, the passing of the years, the recent death of her mother? Her desire to keep her father alive, some contact with the past, memories? Her acting, her response to the soldier, as if she was his wife? Her going to sleep?

8. The soldier waking, walking, eluding the hospital staff, out in the streets, the bewilderment of the traffic, 21st century Teheran? The long journey, his decision to go to the home of his old friends?

9. His reaction, his being old himself, the soldiers being old? Their memories, talk? His harsh treatment of the morphine addict despite the soldier’s explanation of his addiction? His going to the cliff?

10. The daughter, her boyfriend, his participation? The doctors, the police? Everyone arriving? The fact that the boyfriend had gone to sleep as well?

11. The rounding up of the soldiers, the men who were wounded in the past?

12. The plea to the soldier, the explanations, his daughter and her talking with her father?

13. The final parade, the commander, the soldiers and their salute? The film’s salute to the veterans?

14. The themes of contemporary Iran, the 21st century and its situation, the memories of the war, the treatment of the veterans?