Iran spins Oscar win By

artappraiser — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 01:40:37 +0000

In reply to 'A Separation' has a powerful effect on L.A. Iranians

Iran spins Oscar win
By Joshua Keating, Passport blog @ ForeignPolicy.com, Feb. 27, 2012 - 2:50 PM

[....] While not explicitly political, Farhadi did refer to Iran as a "rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics," which could be read as a subtle suggestion that his country's cultural life has been smothered by its government. As Global Voices' Fred Petrossian reports, the official Fars News simply changed the text of the speech [....]

Iran has a rich film tradition, but the government seems to be doing its best to destroy it, judging from last month's decision to shutter the independent Iranian House of Cinema -- the country's directors' guild -- and the arrest of six documentary filmmakers working on a film about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in September. The country's two best-known directors are currently living abroad and in jail, respectively.

I had read about the Iranian government closing the House of Cinema when it happened. For those who have followed Iranian arts over the years, it was a pretty strong sign that hardliners are gaining more power. Iranian independent cinema was one point of pride that the mullahs in the past seem to have understood gave them a rep as "not as bad as some of those other guys" in the neighborhood, i.e., a more modern kinda Islamic theocracy. That's been the case for years,;people in the Indie film world would point to Iranian films as "it can't be all bad for the arts over there." Seemed like the Iranian government just decided to throw that rep away. For that reason, I suspected "A Separation" was a shoo-in to win, most of the voters in that category would know all about this happening.

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Iran spins Oscar win By