Heiran

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During a recent trip to Minneapolis, I had the pleasure of watching an Iranian film, “Heiran” (2009), that was playing as part of a traveling Iranian Film Festival at the Walker Art Center. Directed by first-time filmmaker Shalizeh Arefpour, “Heiran” tells a touching love story set in a remote village in Iran. With a constant flow of Iranian women directors, Arefpour can rightly take her place with other Iranian New Wave directors like Samira Makhmalbaf ("Blackboards"), Jafar Panahi ("Offside"), Mohsen Makhmalbaf ("Kandahar"), and Niki Karimi ("A few days latter"). Of course, a lot of Iranian women directors are motivated by Rakhshân Bani-E'temâd, who is considered as the top Iranian women director.The story begins when a schoolgirl, Mahi (Baran Kosari), falls for an Afghani immigrant, Heiran (Mehrdad Sedighian). Soon, Mahi’s family oppose her new bonds with Heiran because he is an Afghani worker leading a nomadic life. Mahi’s father finds out that Heiran has been living illegally and that results in his getting fired from his current job. This sets off a chain of events. Heiran on a lookout for a new job eventually ends up in Tehran. Mahi, on the other hand, waits patiently for his arrival in the village. Upon getting no news from Heiran, Mahi, along with her grandfather, sets off on a bizarre train journey to Tehran.

After a brief search, Mahi finds out that Heiran is working for a construction company. Soon after, with the blessings of Mahi’s grandfather, they get married. Along the way, Heiran struggles to hang onto his job due to an invalid work permit. Eventually, he ends up working at a chicken farm and getting infected with a disease, although not deadly by any means. Meanwhile, Mahi is pregnant and Heiran is tense about keeping sustainable income for his family. One day, Heiran does not return home from work. This results in an extensive search by Mahi, the grandfather, and Mahi’s father. After getting a tip from an immigration office, Mahi begins another round of journeys, wandering from one illegal work camp to the next. Finally, her journey takes her to the Afghanistan border, where she still hopes to find Heiran.

“Heiran” tackles a key issue that is associated with the state of illegal workers in Iran. As a result of the Afghan war (due to the presence of U.S. forces), it is documented that about three million workers from Afghanistan migrate to neighboring countries like Iran and Pakistan in search for work. Not only does the film address the state of illegal workers, but it also presses the issue of unemployment in a war-ravaged country, Afghanistan. The war has destroyed Afghanistan’s economy to the point where Afghanis cannot find jobs in their own country. As a result, they lead nomadic lives, traveling from one country to the other. Furthermore, they don’t always have valid work permits and they use their Persian language skills to find jobs. It is this aspect that “Heiran” highlights perfectly, nailing the universal issue associated with illegal workers.

The situation of workers in “Heiran” is somewhat similar to the state of Mexican workers in the U.S. These immigrant workers do dirty, sometimes risky jobs that locals won’t do. In addition, even though the market has a reasonable demand for these type of workers, the immigration offices in both countries fail to address the state of immigrant workers. I noticed an amazing similarity, probably more evident after the passage of the new Arizona Immigration Law, in “Heiran”: law enforcement officers stopped and asked for a valid work permit from anyone who looked different from their locals. The Arizona Immigration Law enacts similar kinds of law enforcement on immigrant workers.

“Heiran” displays a very striking and lush cinematography. The cinematography style no doubt clearly shows director’s love for Iranian landscapes and rural settings--a style similar to that seen in the movies “The Wind Will Carry us,” “Taste of Cherry,” and many other Iranian movies. The cinematography in “Heiran” is like poetry in motion. There are a couple of shots that stand out: Heiran and Mahi on a hilltop with a bicycle and Mahi peeping through a small square hole trying to identify Heiran in a group of illegal immigrants at a camp. The film takes us from a rural village with its natural beauty to the busy streets of Tehran with its major transformation as part of commercial modernization.

Mahi, played by Baran Kosari, is at the heart of the film, and she plays her character perfectly. In the initial moments in the film, Mahi displays her charm as a young school girl. However, after a series of disappointments in her way, she matures into a thinking adult. She firmly believes that her action in perusing Heiran is right and never doubts it for a single moment. More so, she is willing to take all the responsibility for her actions. With each disappointment, she gets emotionally stronger. She is stubborn to the point where her family members fail to reason with her. This is definitely a breakthrough performance by Baran Kosari and one that is going to win her a lot of accolades in film circles.

“Heiran” has a short running time of eighty-eight minutes, and it breezes by pretty quickly due to fine performances and beautiful photography. Nevertheless, I have a minor concern with the film. Even though the film is named after its male protagonist, Heiran, the film is narrated through the eyes of Mahi. It is her actions, words, and interaction that drive the entire story. In fact, she is in every frame of the movie. I know the entire film is about finding Heiran, but it eventually is Mahi’s journey. I thought the movie would have played much better if it were named “Mahi.”

Director Shalizeh Arefpour is surely an emerging talent. Make sure you see this movie if it plays in your art center.


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