Raving Iran

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Movie
Original title Raving Iran
Country of production Switzerland
original language Farsi , German , English
Publishing year 2016
length 84 minutes
Age rating FSK 6
Rod
Director Susanne Regina Meures
script Susanne Regina Meures
production Christian Frei
music Blade & Beard
Ghazal Shakeri
Roland Widmer
Steffan Willenegger
camera Gabriel Lobos
cut Rebecca Trosch

Raving Iran is a 2016 documentary by the German filmmaker Susanne Regina Meures . She accompanies two Iranian techno DJs in their everyday lives in Tehran and on a trip to the Lethargy Festival in Zurich .

content

It's 2014, the year before Hassan Rouhani was elected President of Iran. The two friends Anoosh and Arash live in Tehran. As techno DJs, it is not easy for them: dance events with electronic music are forbidden, as is the publication of corresponding sound carriers. The content of the film can be divided into three parts: the organization of a rave , the production of a CD and the trip to Switzerland and its preparation.

At the beginning of the film, the two twenties organize a dance event where they appear as DJs. Since a venue in the city would be too dangerous, the rave is to take place in the desert surrounding Tehran. They do not have a permit for the event and therefore have difficulty borrowing suitable equipment. At the same time they organize the transport of the event guests, which takes place with buses and trucks. Since there are regular police checks on the streets, officers have to be bribed. Finally the vehicles start and the rave takes place in a hollow in the middle of the desert.

Anoosh and Arash have produced deep house music for a CD under the name Blade & Beard . The printing of the CD cover causes difficulties, as an official permit has to be available for the production of print products, but this is denied to the two because the print template contains English texts and shows images that violate clothing regulations. Several attempts to get printing companies to cooperate even without submitting a permit fail until a company is found that secretly prints the covers. Distribution is similarly difficult, with stores for sound carriers refusing to include illegally produced CDs in their product range. A business owner advises the two of them to choose a cover design that appears approvable, but Anoosh and Arash stick to their cover. The two DJs send their CD to various European music festivals by post. Surprisingly, they received a telephone confirmation from the Lethargy Festival in Zurich , which is taking place as part of the Street Parade in the Rote Fabrik . Anoosh is arrested and briefly detained during an illegal dance event held in Tehran. Both DJs start thinking about escaping the country.

Numerous documents are required for the visa and the exit permit. Anoosh and Arash employ the services of an agent, who costs a large sum of money; Anoosh has to borrow large parts of the money from his parents. You will receive a visa for five days. The departure works smoothly. In Switzerland, the two of them enjoy life that is free of restrictions compared to Iran and play at the music festival, but stay in close contact with their families and friends in Iran by telephone. In numerous conversations, they discuss the pros and cons of the approaching return trip. On the last day, they finally get into a taxi to the airport. The film ends with the two asking the driver to stop and let them get out while driving.

History of origin

Raving Iran was the first feature film for the Mönchengladbach- born director Meures, who studied film at the Zurich University of the Arts and worked for several print media (including as a picture editor for the NZZ ) . She was inspired by a magazine report about techno parties in Iran, and she got in touch with the organizing DJs Anoosh and Arash via Facebook. Meures conceived the film's narrative for a Western audience because they would not understand the story if it were too deeply embedded in the Iranian mentality and culture. The film was financed by the Federal Office of Culture , various film funding funds and the Zurich University of the Arts. The shooting turned out to be difficult; there was no permit, equipment was confiscated, and many scenes had to be filmed with a smartphone , which was hidden in a shirt specially made for the purpose , because a camera was noticed . The memory cards with the film material were smuggled out of the country by Iranian students abroad and sent to Zurich by courier.

Raving Iran has been shown at several film festivals, such as the Visions du Réel , where it premiered on April 16, 2016 and won the CHF 10,000 prize for the “most innovative Swiss film”, at the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto (international Premiere on May 1, 2016), the Locarno Film Festival , the DOK.fest , and the Krakowski Festiwal Filmowy . He also won the First Step Award 2016 in the “Documentary” category. The film will be released in Swiss theaters on October 20, 2016, and in Germany on September 29, 2016.

criticism

Michael Meyns praised strong individual scenes for Filmstarts.de , which showed the ambivalence of the Iranian system - many things are forbidden, but then somehow possible. Meyns, however, criticized the film's limited perspective, which offered little insight into everyday life in Tehran, and considered several scenes to be dramatized and in some cases staged. For Die Zeit, Matthias Stolz saw the focus of the film less in a political statement than in the portrayal of a friendship between men, describing Anoosh and Arash as a “cinematic dream couple”. Oliver Kaever praised in Der Spiegel that Raving Iran portrayed life in a theocracy and its arbitrary rules well and had a "great immediacy" due to his sometimes shaky cell phone pictures. Compared to Taxi Tehran , which is also played in everyday Iranian life, the film clearly falls behind in its impact on the audience.

In Noisey , Niloufar Haidari criticized that the film exaggerated the repressive situation in the Iranian music scene and manipulated Western viewers into seeing the situation even more aggravated than it is anyway. The translation of the subtitles is bad. Haidari criticizes a scene in which the two musicians want to sell a CD in a local shop as completely unrealistic. Because of the restrictive situation in Iran, music was mainly distributed over the Internet and nobody would ever try to sell their CDs like that.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ WomenAndHollywood.com: Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Susanne Regina Meures - “Raving Iran”. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .
  2. ^ A b Niloufar Haidari, Noisey UK Staff: Iranian Musicians Deserve Better than the 'Raving Iran' Documentary. In: Noisey. Retrieved March 6, 2017, March 17, 2019 (UK English).
  3. ↑ Deutschlandfunk.de: I never thought of breaking off the film. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .
  4. ↑ NZZ.ch: Chinese film receives main prize. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .
  5. ↑ FirstSteps.de: winners First Steps 2016. Accessed on October 2, 2016 .
  6. ^ Filmstarts.de: Raving Iran. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Zeit.de: Not without my buddy. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Spiegel.de: Please fill out a form to celebrate. Retrieved October 2, 2016 .