MINA FROM THE SILENT CITY

Iran, 2007, 120 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Amir Shahab Razavian.

Mina from the Silent City is a significant film for Iran in 2007 insofar as it shows a character coming back from overseas after thirty years. He is a medical practitioner, a top surgeon and Germany and was educated there from the age of fifteen. He has married there, is now divorced, is in strained relationship with his daughter. When he returns to Iran to perform an operation, he is persuaded to go to his own city, Bam, devastated by the earthquake of 2004.

This gives him the opportunity to look at contemporary Iran – especially through the breezy character of a young taxi driver who has no knowledge of the past – and to try to come to terms with his past and his growing up outside his land. Eventually, he accompanies a friend of his father back to Bahm and tries to recover some of his past memories.

The doctor is a stern man, gradually unbending as he returns to Iran. His father’s friend is a genial old man, disappointed in his past, but coming to a form of reconciliation with the doctor at the end.

1.A film of Iran, its past and present, the differences of the generations, the Iranian abroad and the effect of his return? An individual journey, a journey for the national consciousness?

2.The locations in Hamburg, in Tehran, in Bahm? The atmosphere of the 20th century, the transition to the 21st century? The differences between Europe and Asia? The reality of Bahm, the earthquake, the aftermath?

3.The sequences in Germany, the doctor and his work in the operating theatre, a very serious man, bitter, silent at home, the empty house? The effect of the divorce? The strained relationship with his daughter? Her reaching out to him? His cold manner, going to the airport, her presence and his wanting her away, the gift and his forgetting it? The images of Germany – which will contrast with those of Iran?

4.The doctor and his expertise, going to Germany at the age of fifteen, educated and growing up there, separated from his past? The effect on him, a sense of alienation? His marriage, the divorce? His memories of Mina in Bahm, the failure of that relationship? The images of his father, stern, military, the memories of the children at play, the marbles (and the gift of his daughter)? The photos of his family?

5.Cantankerous at Tehran Airport, the doctor and the taxi driver, his listening to the taxi driver’s patter, the observations of the city of Tehran? His being called to do the operation, the progress of the operation and its success?

6.The friend of his father, his music lessons, singing? The decision to go to Bam?

7.The taxi driver, cheerful, modern, talkative, explaining the different honking of the horns? Mobile phone? Music? No pre-revolution memories? His style of driving? His offer to drive the doctor? Their bonding? Driving him to Bam?

8.The doctor talking with his daughter via computer, the opening of the gift? A gradual change?

9.Bahm, the visuals, the wreckage from the earthquake, the people? The criticism of his not coming when there was need? His defence?

10.Finding the palm groves, explaining the engineering needed to get the water to them, the possibility of his taking them over?

11.Finding the house, the memories, Mina?

12.The old man and his memories, his love for the doctor’s mother, singing at the wedding? His regrets?

13.The ending, the end of the journey, the final image of the two men and reconciliation together?