PRAYER MATERIALS

Iran, 2002, 75 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Dariush Yari.

Prayer Materials is a film about a remote Iranian village, a self-sufficient community, who have a religious fervour celebrating annually the martyrdom of a famous Imam. The ceremony is a mourning ritual, everybody in the village having a particular role. Some are musicians, some symbolically whip themselves, there is a focus on a family whose tradition is to stab themselves in the head.

Young Akbar has arrived at the age where he has the right to stab himself but he does not want to. He spends a lot of time trying to argue his way out, especially against his severe father and his accommodating brother. He puts tacks on the road so that the bicycle of the man who goes to buy the swords will be punctured and unable to buy it - in the long run there isn't a poiniard available for him. In the meantime, a man arrives with his young daughter looking for a herbal doctor. The villagers think that his fine horse in the horse of their Imam and try to take it, finally renting it. This gives them the confidence to have their ceremony. The daughter and the boy become friends.

The boy also has a pet goat and one of the possibilities is for the goat to be killed and his blood spilt instead of that of the boy. Ultimately, after a great deal of detail of life in the village, discussions about the ceremony and faith, the boy has the idea that he should sacrifice his goat so that the young girl will be healed. The ceremony takes place, the boy offers his goat for sacrifice, the horse runs back to the village, in an apocalyptic moment, the girl is healed and her father burns the wagon. The film is interesting in showing rituals and folklore in a remote village, something like showing particular ceremonies in Catholic countries like Spain or Malta where the ritual seems exotic and not in the mainstream.