This is a short film on a 75 year old woman who lived her entire life in Kuala Lumpur. She survived the Japanese occupation, experienced Merdeka in UK and her uncle was caught in Operasi Lalang (ISA, 1987).
This is also an experiment on combining different technologies to create a piece like this. Featuring a Canon 5D and iPhone 3GS.
Persepolis attempts to paint a picture of Iran that has yet to be painted so truthfully, beautifully, and passionately. Ever so often we judge a nation on face value – its leader’s foreign and domestic policies, it’s beliefs and culture etc. The thing is, the reality on the ground hardly reaches to the international public. The recent strides in technology has enabled us to see for ourselves, without censorship or government interference, what Iranians went through during the recent elections. But even then, perception and lack of understanding still hindered us from feeling anything other than injustice.
I feel Persepolis is a great film to begin learning, at least from a fairly simplistic point of view, of Iranian culture and the struggles. The film brought up one very important view (as Mahmood Mamdani’s, Good Muslim, Bad Muslim) – the notion of opposing forces within one religion. Of course it would be overly naive of anyone to make this sweeping generalization. Sadly, that is the sate of the Muslim image today to the rest of the world. And it doesn’t help that America perpetuates that idea any way it can.
Through Marjane’s eyes, we see how Iran moved from the Iranian Revolution to the new leadership of Islamic Fundamentalist to the Iran-Iraq war. Each step a depressing degeneration of a nation. Happiness was presented as only fleeting, Acceptance and trust as myths, and religion as evil.
Of course it would be an exaggeration to say that the film implied religion was evil. But in a sense, we were made to see how people can do so much harm in the name of God. Mamdani summed up this point well in stating,
“How, one may ask, does the literal reading of sacred texts translate into hijacking, murder and terrorism?”
The atrocities that were committed throughout history because of religious beliefs is endless. In Christianity as much as in Islam. But once again, it is unfair to generalize so broadly. These actions created ripples in mankind, yet it only represents the will of the leader.
In that light, Iranians were presented in stark contrast with the government. The people being open and modern while the government, old and fundamentalist. Quoting Mamdani,
“It is Bernard Lewis, not Samuel Huntington, who provides the intellectual support for the notion that there are “good” as opposed to “bad” Muslims, an idea that has become the driving force of American foreign policy.”
Persepolis might come off as trying to convince its audiences that not all Muslims are bad. That there are moderate Muslims, that would alongside being faithful to their religion, enjoy some Michael Jackson once in awhile. Moderation I believe, is crucial for today’s society. As much as western music might be frowned upon by fundamentalist and labeled as the devil’s tool, using religion to wage wars and murder your own people is equally evil. And to a certain extent, I would like to believe that listening to music never harmed anyone.
That’s the thing. Religion is personal. You can never force anyone to bow down to a God that person does not believe in. He needs to have that personal experience. But over and over again, history has shown us otherwise. And more often that not, these so called ‘holy intentions’, is just a facade for a hidden political agenda.
Marjane grew up in circumstances that are unimaginable. But she learned and lived. In her own way, she defied the tyrant. We need to learn from her life, from Iran. Learn that freedom is sacred and humanity is to be protected.
The following essay is based on the screening of “Our Burma Days” in class – a 70’s documentary based on 2 siblings traveling back to their hometown in Burma to get back in touch with their roots.
Our Burma Days starts off as a simple journal of accounts that plod along to reveal a much deeper purpose in its narrative. The film uses siblings to tell a story that is bigger than theirs, becoming culturally relevant to the world even. Even if you do not share their background and race, you would still find yourself drawing comparison to your own. Well at least in my case it was.
The need to fit into a culture, a system of belief, even a race – these are the issues that I myself struggle with since I was a kid. I grew up with a background that was very English. My story books would be in English. The cartoons I watched were in English. The other kids I played with spoke English. Every Sunday, I would go to church and listen to bible stories, you guessed it, in English. I was soaked in the language. Even the scoldings were in English! Needless to say, I grew up not speaking Chinese.
To be a Chinese boy with that background, well it was tough. My fellow man (usually relatives or older folk) would persecute me for not knowing how to write my name in Chinese or how to address them in the appropriate Chinese way. They felt it was somehow important to not stop being Chinese. Of course, the irony here is that the real Chinese, the ones from China, do not consider us to be one of them. We are as good as a Malay or an Indian to them. Such irony! The Chinese looks down at our Mandarin, the Hongkies look down at our Cantonese. I think it is such mentality that keeps Malaysians from being truly united. We keep harping about our mainland, our birth land, our real origins! My God, you were born in Malaysia, raised in Malaysia, you are a Malaysian.
That’s why I can relate to Sally. She refuses to talk about her past from Burma. I don’t blame her. I believe we have the right to decide for ourselves which culture we want to adopt. I feel comfortable with the West. I love the way they think, they act. I love the ideologies that accompany the culture. Chinese culture is cold and distant for me, alien even.
Of course, just like in the film, Sally did in a way, look like a fool, “yellow skin on the outside, but white inside”. “let’s not kid ourselves”, mentioned in another part. I disagree. As much as the Chinaman beside me is allowed to be that rude, obnoxious, uncultured Chinaman, I should be allowed to be a modern, cultured, banana*.
* Banana – yellow on the outside, white on the inside
An alternative voice is more than just being the opposition. On the contrary, it’s rarely that the alternative is given a chance to be more than just a bitter man’s point of view – the loser of the battle’s grumble. We’ve been discussing about history and national narratives, and there’s a cheesy saying that couldn’t be nearer to the truth, “history is written by the winners”. Of course this is true in every aspect of our society, not just the history books, but, I want to opine to you today, why not consider the alternative seriously? More often than not, the alternative IS the truth.
I am a fan of free speech. Even though I rarely push the boundaries of it (or even come close?). But I think our country has a serious problem in dealing with this issue, this fundamental human right. Don’t we all just love to shut the differing one up?
Let’s not dwell on that. I just want to put it up for everyone’s consideration that maybe we should learn to listen first, judge later. Consider, before putting down. Your views are not always right.
In taking this subject (even with all the perilous reading involved), I feel liberated. Being the alternative is about more than just sitting at the sidelines, calling out the mainstream’s faults, hating popular culture and writing words that no one else can understand. We have a higher calling – to write the well informed, unbiased, uncensored, political-less TRUTH. The public deserves more than the garbage the mainstream lords feed them.
Humans need to learn to live, and not just be told how to.