THE COMPENSATION OF SILENCE
Iran, 2007, 90 minutes, Colour.
Parviz Parastooi.
Directed by Maziar Miri.
The Compensation of Silence is about trauma for the veterans of the Iraq- Iran war. While world audiences are familiar with stories about trauma for American and British soldiers, they need to remember that the soldiers in other wars around the world also experienced this trauma.
The film focuses on a veteran, a lonely man who runs a kiosk for tickets. He remembers his part in the war but has been traumatised, is partly delusional, blaming himself for the death of his comrade. The original novel on which the film was based was called I Was Your Son’s Murderer.
Triggered by watching something on television, he goes to the father of the man he says he his has killed and begins a journey with the old man to try to discover the truth. He believes he will be found guilty and wants the father’s pardon. What happens is that he meets a number of people involved in the war, is put off by a number of contemporaries, especially arrogant editors of magazines and chattering secretaries before he goes to a hospital to find the commander who was shot through the neck and is unable to speak. Face to face with the commander, he is able to remember the dilemma in which he found himself, a troop going through water, wading silently so as not to alert the enemy when the old man’s son was shot in the neck. The commander wanted him silenced because he was a danger to the rest of the group. Yahya of the piece accompanied him and saw the wounded man releasing his wound and so drowning. The man is seen at the end of the film with the father, the father a tailor sewing and the soldier praying. There is a strong religious dimension to the film, especially in the prayer of the traumatised man.
The film is another star vehicle for Parviz Parastooi who appeared to great advantage in a variety of different roles including The Lizard and Weeping Willow.
1.The impact of war? In its time? On the soldiers? The aftermath, trauma, the need for healing?
2.Twenty years later, the picture of the war sequences, the nightmares and Abbar drowning in his bed? Contemporary Tehran, the kiosk, the old man and his tailor shop, the doctors’ offices, the magazine offices, the man who worked the machinery, the hospital for veterans? Authentic atmosphere? The silences and the minimal score?
3.Tehran, the city itself, society? The credits and the range of people coming up to the window to buy tickets?
4.Abbar and his arriving home, his simple routines, listening to the radio, watching the TV, the war and its effect? The detailed presentation of his prayer? On his bed, thinking he was drowning, waking from the nightmare?
5.His decision to go to the father of Yahya? The audience seeing Yahya beckoning him in the nightmare? Underwater? The explanation to the father – and the title of the original novel? His being upset, disturbing the father, the father knowing that his son was a hero and acclaimed, Abbar asking forgiveness?
6.The effect of the trauma, many decades later? Delusional – especially in his dreams? His beginning his journey, the discovery and healing? The sense of urgency? His age, living alone, his work? The detail of tracking down the veterans, the information, his having memories, not having the memories? The man in the workshop, the recollections, the discoveries? The various people who put the old man and Abbar off? Getting the addresses?
7.The secretaries, the chatter on the phone and the disregard? The editor, her putting them off, her rudeness and Abbar’s response to her, her having to think? These people making the couple desperate? The invitation to see the doctor at his seminar – and the lunch vouchers?
8.The experience in the lift, the lift filling with water, his sense of panic, running into the street, being knocked over, his pills going flying? His not being so badly injured?
9.Going to the veterans’ hospital, seeing the commander, his condition, his throat wound and his being unable to speak? The appeal by Abbar? The appeal by the father? Jogging Abbar’s memories, the wading in the water, the group, the need for silence, Yahya being shot, Abbar being his companion, holding him up, the commander and his wanting silence, his wanting Yahya silenced, abandoning them, the panic, their going under the water, Yahya and his removing his hand from his wound, the blood flowing, his drowning? The effect on Abbar?
10.This extended scene, its illustration of war, the strategy of decision-making? Death and selflessness?
11.The simplicity of the end, the old tailor at work, knowing the truth about his son, Abbar praying and at peace?
