Generation Tehran
October 5, 2008 1:46 PM Subscribe
Generation Tehran A documentary short about the youth of Iran.
Before going to look at the link, I'm going to predict it's about the Westernized youth of well-off North Tehran, who wear designer clothes under their chadors and party down to American music at home, where they're safe from the morality squads.
posted by languagehat at 3:13 PM on October 5, 2008
posted by languagehat at 3:13 PM on October 5, 2008
Some of those people's faces are so amazingly close to what ancient Persian statues and reliefs look like. It's interesting to see the Cyrus-the-Great face paired up with an Elvis Presley haircut and sideburns.
posted by XMLicious at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2008
posted by XMLicious at 3:14 PM on October 5, 2008
Ugh, last thing we need is Iran to go through their Kevin Smith phase. Can't they just skip through it and learn the best way to deal with existential crisis is to make the trivialities into religious pilgrimages. Isn't this the void the NY Times fills lifestyle section fills? They need to stop worrying about the meaning of life and start feeling bad they can't build luxury treehouses.
posted by geoff. at 3:26 PM on October 5, 2008
posted by geoff. at 3:26 PM on October 5, 2008
Before going to look at the link, I'm going to predict it's about the Westernized youth of well-off North Tehran, who wear designer clothes under their chadors and party down to American music at home, where they're safe from the morality squads.
You missed the part where they complain about how superficial it is (clothing, western culture), then they spend the rest of the film discussing the impact governmental restrictions has on their own superficialities. There's a documentary "Rich Kids" which is exactly the same, sans the philosophy 101 take of this documentary.
The only thing this shows me is that the repressiveness of the regime is proportional to class divisions. In a highly repressive regime like this, the rich kids are almost as well off as their Western counterparts, but light years away from their working class brethens. While we might have huge gaps in the wealthiest and the middle class in our society, at least we retain the basic freedoms as our capitalist overlords.
posted by geoff. at 3:39 PM on October 5, 2008
You missed the part where they complain about how superficial it is (clothing, western culture), then they spend the rest of the film discussing the impact governmental restrictions has on their own superficialities. There's a documentary "Rich Kids" which is exactly the same, sans the philosophy 101 take of this documentary.
The only thing this shows me is that the repressiveness of the regime is proportional to class divisions. In a highly repressive regime like this, the rich kids are almost as well off as their Western counterparts, but light years away from their working class brethens. While we might have huge gaps in the wealthiest and the middle class in our society, at least we retain the basic freedoms as our capitalist overlords.
posted by geoff. at 3:39 PM on October 5, 2008
Why must I always be right? Why, God, why??
Actually, this is a very good documentary, and I wish every American could see it and stop thinking of Iranians as zombie Islamofascist killer robots. But I feel obliged to point out that these people are the Iranian equivalent of MeFites, and not by any means representative. The people who voted for Ahmadinejad do not shop at Dolce & Gabbana and have never heard of postmodernism.
Incidentally, around minute 20 somebody refers to "Saint Imam Zaman"; this unintelligible phrase refers to Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam for whose return the Shi'a have been waiting since the year 872 (Imam-e Zaman and Saheb-e Zaman mean "Lord of Time" and are common ways of referring to the Twelfth Imam).
posted by languagehat at 3:51 PM on October 5, 2008
Actually, this is a very good documentary, and I wish every American could see it and stop thinking of Iranians as zombie Islamofascist killer robots. But I feel obliged to point out that these people are the Iranian equivalent of MeFites, and not by any means representative. The people who voted for Ahmadinejad do not shop at Dolce & Gabbana and have never heard of postmodernism.
Incidentally, around minute 20 somebody refers to "Saint Imam Zaman"; this unintelligible phrase refers to Muhammad al-Mahdi, the Twelfth Imam for whose return the Shi'a have been waiting since the year 872 (Imam-e Zaman and Saheb-e Zaman mean "Lord of Time" and are common ways of referring to the Twelfth Imam).
posted by languagehat at 3:51 PM on October 5, 2008
http://www.zmag.org/zgraphics/1488
But still a great documentary, thanks. Goes on my list of movies that many, many badly misinformed people should see. And will see, if we use our video projectors wisely.
posted by dnial at 11:24 AM on October 6, 2008
But still a great documentary, thanks. Goes on my list of movies that many, many badly misinformed people should see. And will see, if we use our video projectors wisely.
posted by dnial at 11:24 AM on October 6, 2008
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posted by billybobtoo at 2:27 PM on October 5, 2008