Trailer Time: Argo

Less than a year after Asghar Farhadi brought Iran to Hollywood with his piercing dramatic thriller, A Separation, Ben Affleck is doing the opposite and taking Hollywood to Iran with Argo. Set during the 444 day hostage crisis in Tehran, Affleck's period political thriller tells the story of a fake film crew who enter Iran to take 6 of the American hostages back with them under disguise.

Iran-themed films taking Hollywood by storm?

Part of me, as an Iranian, is excited to see Tehran in a major Hollywood production, though the film is actually shot in Istanbul, Turkey and the disastrous mistake of showing one of city's most iconic mosques in the trailer when it's supposed to stand in for another location promises more ignorant missteps in the architectural department. To the film's credit, however, I have never been to a city that resembles my hometown more than Istanbul does.
The other part of me dreads the prospect of seeing the film in full. The hostage crisis is, by all accounts except the one given by the far right conservatives of the Iranian regime, a scar on the face of Iranian history. It's an event that accelerated Iran's isolation from the West and became a blatant example of the government's disrespect for international diplomacy. I haven't seen the film so it'd be presumtuous of me to accuse it of anything, but there really aren't many ways the story can be spun and none of those will bolster the image of Iranians in the West.
It's disappointing that with so many years gone after the crisis, this film should come a mere few months after Asghar Farhadi's pitch-perfect Oscar speech pleaded for a better understanding of Iranians as "people who respect all civilizations and cultures." 
The politics aside, Ben Affleck has been maturing as a director and this trailer gives us every reason to believe he can conjure up something as exciting as The Town or Gone Baby Gone. The film will be released in Canada on October 12th.

A Night With A Rock Band (And Their Music Videos)

Over the weekend, I had the pleasure of watching my favourite Iranian band, Kiosk, play an amazing show at Toronto's Mod Club. Even as an ardent fan of the band who was sure they wouldn't disappoint, I was still surprised at the astonishing quality of their show. Everything came together so well; the lively gypsy-inspired tunes, the incredibly smart political satire, the bitter love songs, the atmosphere of the club (but for the drunk girl who repeatedly hit me in the head), everything was ripe for a great night, and indeed, it ended up being one.

Anyway, after the concert my sister pointed me to one of their music videos that, strangely, I hadn't seen before. And I absolutely love it. For those of you who don't speak Farsi, you might guess from the title and the video's theme that this is a break-up song. It's a poignant post-mortem on a failed relationship and the words describe the difficulty of letting go of the shared memories. I love how the minimal animation quite literally materializes the memories in the shape of shared "stuff" and utilizes the band's cheeky brand of humour even though the lyrics don't show a trace of it in this instance.