PERSIAN CARPET
Iran, 2007, 120 minutes, Colour.
1.Directed by Behruz Afkhami.
2.3D CARPET
Directed by Rahkshan Bani- Etemad
3.THE ELOQUENT CARPET
Directed by Bahram Beizai.
4.UNTYING THE KNOT
Directed by Jafar Panahi.
5.THE LAND CARPET
Directed by Kamal Tabrizi.
6.FIRE AND WOOF
Directed by Seifollah Daad.
7.Directed by Hojtiba Raee.
8.THE MAGIC CARPET
Directed by Nor- Ol- Dir Zarrukelk.
9.THE CARPET, THE HORSE AND THE TORK MEN
Directed by Khosro Sinai.
10.CARPET IS LIFE
Directed by Bahman Farmanara.
11.IS THERE A PLACE TO APPROACH
Directed by Abbas Kierostami.
12.A HAND THAT CREATED ONE, PRESENTED TO A FRIEND
Directed by Majid Majidi.
13.MEMORY, MEMORY
Directed by Reza Mir Karimi.
14.THE CARPET AND THE ANGEL
Directed by Dariush Mehrjui
15.A COPY IS NOT AS GOOD AS THE GENUINE
Directed by Mohammed Reza Homormand.
Persian Carpet is a portmanteau film intended to display the richness of Iranian culture as symbolised in its carpet tradition, its art and myths, as well as its high standing in the international world of cinema.
Producer Reza Mir Karimi (Under the Moonlight, Here, a Shining Light) commissioned fourteen of Iran’s major directors to contribute their piece of cinema carpet, an eight minutes visual essay, narrative, story, contemplation, on the theme of carpet. He also contributed a story himself.
As might be expected, they are of differing quality, some (especially at first) are rather instructional on the making of carpets, the hard work and industry as well as the creative imagination. Various legends are brought forward (including a story of Genghis Khan’s destructive behaviour). As stories are told and particular carpets contemplated, we have a vision of beauty and art, an ancient history of culture, down to earth stories as well as surreal stories and a final plea against globalisation: closing the weaving centres in Esfahan because it can all be done just as well by cheap labour in China!
Of the international name directors, Kierostami has a single take, camera roving over a carpet, a feat within the range of all the directors. Jafar Panahi also has a single take but is able to tell a story in his eight minutes: a weaver and her soldier brother try to persuade a busy and canny buyer to take her carpets. Darius Mehrjui tells a (too?) surreal story about a woman going into an apartment. Reza Mir Kirimi is inventive in showing a family arriving at the grandparents’ house and the role of carpet – in a home movie style. The most humanly satisfying is the story told by Majid Majidi about an old man who arrives in the city to give his friend the gift of a carpet, waits outside the house while his friend is out, sits and meditates, is given some food by a neighbour and gives us time to contemplate beauty, friendship and generosity.
1. The village, the range of colour, the swirling collage of colour, pattens, the tribal designs, the manufacture of carpets, the examples?
2. Esfahan, the computer, the seven years’ work, the discussion with the blurred-faced based man? The reality of the mosques, facades? What seems impossible to the brain is possible to the imagination? The people of Esfahan, the critique of the man on the video, watching the video? Seeing the beauty of the carpet?
3. The carpet, fifty or more story panels, the colourful nature, the trees, multicoloured threads and the weaver?
4. The single take, the narrative, the young soldier with his sister, the camera following them, trying to persuade the owner to buy the carpet, the measuring of the carpet, the anxiety of the sister?
5. The land carpet, the threads and the dyes, real-life interwoven with the carpet designs? Water and patterns? The musical score?
6. Genghis Khan, the comment on his burning the carpets? The choir, the hymn? The man watching the weaver, the Downs man weaving, the photo, the photo falling down, the burning of the carpets with Genghis Khan on them? The classical western music?
7. The girl, the car in the mountains, the photographer, the girl running with the carpet throughout the hillside village?
8. The animation, the little prince, the carpet magic, the fox, the rose? The little prince’s imagination, weaving the carpet? The world as a carpet? The jaunty musical score?
9. The children, the chanting, the horses, the goats and the herdsman, the cradle? The range of generations of faces in the carpets? The carpets as mirrors? The costumes, the dancers, the riders?
10. The carpet and life, the life is short, art is forever? The survey of the painting, the still life with the carpets on the floor, the elegant man sitting and watching? The child and the fruit? The collage of still lifes? The corpse and the sheet? The mandolin-style music?
11. The single take and the camera roving over the carpet? The eye and beauty? Poetry and songs of love, the willows? The musical score?
12. The old man, his eyes, on the side of the road? In the city and the visas of the city? Trying to get a lift, asking directions, going to the alley? The beauty of the trees? The children running, buying the toys? The old man helping to fix the tyre? The knock on the door, his presence, the lady giving him information, her hospitality, his waiting? The close-ups of the trees with the leaves, the wind? Unwrapping the carpet? Praying on it, being given food, his washing, combing his hair? Dozing? The cool water and the light and the weed and the images of wool and weaving? The food, talking about his weaving as his work and hobby in old age? Washing the plates? The birds pecking the crumbs?
13. The home movie style, the commentary by the photographer, the little girl and the close-up, the hand-held camera, the filming? The arrival of the family, going to the door? Grandma’s house? The father ringing the bell, the family greetings, the shoes off the carpet because it was for prayer, the old uncle’s arrival? The vistas of carpets on the floor, in the kitchen?
14. The soul tree, the placing of the carpet, the close-ups of the key and other objects on the carpet, the mobile phone, eating and creating a mess, the doves and the crumbs, the cat approaching the doves, the woman asleep, the carpet magically rising? An allegory?
15. The quotation from John Singer Sargent about Italian art and the Renaissance and one Persian carpet? The narrative? The dyeing of the wool, the investor interested in a workshop in China with seven or eight hundred workers? His being in the mosque, watching the birds? The old man refusing? The pragmatic: a carpet is a carpet, wherever it is made, economies and cost as being important? The man wanting to get his plane, being invited to come in and eat? Observing the vistas? The final focus on the shoes? And the emphasis that the carpet in its authenticity was important?
16. The overall impact of this carpet of films? The narratives, contemplation, affirmation, Persian traditions, art, religion, folklore,myths? The beauty and the everlasting art from this part of the world?
