EARTH’S CHILD
Iran, 2008, 90 minutes, Colour.
Mahtab Nasirpour, Shavnam Moghaddami.
Directed by Mohammed Ali Ahangar.
Earth’s Child takes audiences back to the Iraq -Iran war almost twenty years after its ending. This time the focus is on corpses of Iranians who died on Iraqui soil and a quest of a grieving wife to find her husband’s body. It is a journey of piety as well as a journey fraught with danger from guides, from hostile or suspicious tribes along the borders.
The story is harsh, the experience rugged but also one that is inspired by faith.
1.The impact for Iranian audiences? The war, the continued wars in the Middle East for the 21st century, Iranian history, trauma, grief?
2.The film based on facts, generally unknown to the Iranian public? Communicating them in a feature film rather than a documentary?
3.The Iraq-Iran? war, the decisions, the long duration, the politics, Iraq and the invasion, the effect on the Iranians, the dead soldiers, the widows, the bereaved families?
4.The searches for the bodies of soldiers, for decades after the war, the finding of incorrupt bodies, considering them holy, the quest for finding them?
5.The faith dimension of the film: faith in Allah, sense of destiny, the power of prayer, the issue of holiness, promises and pledges, pilgrimages, prayer of gratitude?
6.The situation, the woman getting the information about her husband’s body, her photos, the fate of her husband, the sixteen years, her son, the travelling in the bus, going to the agent, the issue of money, arguing with her son, meeting Mavarin, Gona? Going with them? The son’s protest?
7.The desert locations, the Iran-Iraq? border, the authorities, the arresting of the young boy, the administrator, the info, Maravin and his presence, the photos?
8.The hardships of travel, Mavarin and Gona, the caravan, the arguments, the woman pulling the gun? The raiders and their fanaticism, burning the tomb? Gona and her continuing with the woman, the donkey ride? The further hardships, the mountains, the location, the wrecked plane, the skull and the skeleton, the woman’s decisions, taking part of the body, the skull, a sense of closure, her spirit of faith?
9.Gona, her knowledge of the bodies, the bones, the meeting at the border, the market for bones, the documentation, IDs, whether the bones were those of Iranians or Iraqis? The money deals? The incorrupt bodies, the holy bodies? Gona and her fears, pregnancy, her talking with Mavarin on the initial ride, facing the gun, the woman giving her the gun, the group, the friendship with Mona, going into labour pains, the finding of the body, giving birth, her pledges, her death?
10.The people in the caravan, the Kurdish background, wanting money, the gun, Mona and her friendship, the pledge?
11.The wife, helping with the birth of the child, calling the child after her husband, not needing to bury him, getting a new life, the fulfilment of her prayer?
12.The title, the new child, a child of hope?
