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The Iranian director Tahmineh produces an insightful film where the issue of maternal custody symbolizes all social taboos and
norms
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Once
religion is borrowed, mixed, dogmatized and radicalized for the sake of a
bullying traditional morality, the “human” is victimized (Individually,
socially, politically, and morally, to say the least)--a tragedy. The 'Fifth
Reaction', an Iranian feminist film, amplifies this point without
romanticizing (much?) the victim. The tragedy itself is the tradition on
which all eyes are focussed.
In
the dazzling work of the Iranian director Tahmineh Milani the 'Fifth
Reaction'** is an insightful film where the issue of maternal custody
symbolizes all social taboos and norms. This is her first production after the
Hidden Half, the film which put her in handcuffs--due to her cynical
(not sinister) criticism of the Iranian revolution. The star of The Fifth
Reaction won the best actress award two years ago at the 25th Cairo
International Film Festival for her role in the Hidden Half.
I
came out of the movie blatantly famished. The kind of feeling you get when
you have indulged in something highly involving for some time. Two women
came out in tears. I went straight to work, energized by my unrest, and my
empty stomach, to write. The film was so inspiring that my writing became
the food in my hand (and the crumbs littered my keyboard as I worked!).
The
film, a social drama, revolves around Fereshteh, whose husband's death
leaves her with the responsibility of taking care of her two sons, 7 and 9
years old, in her father-in-laws house--one of the beauties of the nuclear
family structure. Her father in law, the Hajj, is a man of power and
has a high sense of 'traditional' honor. Hajj, as well as a name for one who
has performed Pilgrimage, is also socially an honorary name for an older
Moslem which shows respect for his age and wisdom: the Hajj in this film is
the opposite of all that. Although the film never absolutely demonizes him,
he is the dark force against Fereshteh.
Once
the `iddah(waiting period after her husband's death) is over, the Hadj,
a handsome and chic business man who always dresses in black, tells her that
because of tradition, she cannot share their place anymore: she is no longer
a mahram (a close relative one can not marry) and she should not be
around his ‘young and
agreeable’ sons.
Because
her salary—around 80 dollars
a month—is inadequate to raise 'his' grandsons in the fashion they are
accustomed to, she should leave them with their grandmother and only see
them at weekends, or –here the punch-line of the movie hits us; "…or
under one condition…"
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Tahmineh
Milani
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The
condition was that she marry his other son, Majid. On expressing her
brotherly ties with her brother in-law, who calls her 'my brother's wife',
her answer was an unambiguous NO. Gaining information about his plans to
take the children away from her to another city, Asfahan, she plots with her
four friends and colleague teachers, to resolve the situation. She decides
to escape from the powerful Hajj.
After
that, we are caught up in the chase and the lives of her close circle of
friends, heavy with agonizing Iranian social burdens and chauvinist,
misogynist absolutism. They plead that the reason why they go out of their
way to help Freshet is that it helps them 'forget' the hardships coloring
their lives and through womanly chatter the picture becomes clearer.
One
is married to a man she never loved, the other to a captive of the Iran/Iraq
war who comes back after 12 years as a celebrated ‘hero’ but he is
psychotic. Another is married to a drug addict and the last, and closest to
Freshet, is married to a man she once saw in a restaurant with his rather
youthful secretary yet his only retort was to humiliate her for having spent
time away from her home in a restaurant with silly friends!
The
chase, or the trip, was a journey to deliverance; both the Hadj and
Fereshteh go on this road but not for their own sakes, it is for the
children. As the chase takes us from one stunning scene to another, covering
rural, coastal and desert areas, traditions come unraveled. It was a
desperate attempt to make a fresh start with her children abroad; away from
individual as well as collective pressure and the Hajj renegotiates his
position in the end.
The
Fifth Reaction is a dazzling example of the well-accomplished Iranian
cinematic window on human life. It might not be a heavyweight impressive
Hollywood production and it excludes all the pornographic and violent
themes, foul language, and direct shooting of sinfulness that western films
contain, but the simplicity of the Iranian production seems not only purify
the mind but the soul too. It is unquestionably sensitive and poetic: a
domain for oriental self-expression and an example for Muslim artistic
productions to follow.
Tarek A. Ghanem is
a staff writer and editor of the Contemporary Issues page of
IslamOnline.net. He is specialized in comparative politics and contemporary
Islam. You can reach him at t.ghanem@islam-online.net
**
"The
Fifth Reaction "wins the
prize of the best script( Saad El-Din Wahba Prize) in 27th
Cairo International Film Festival (7-17 October 2003)
