Iran

Year Published: 1962

Creator: Pyramid Films

Complete Record: Film opens with spinning globe that slows to show Iran located on the globe. There is no narrative on this film, just environmental sounds and some music, This film is a series on montages of life in Iran. There are short interesting bits on people, geography, and activities. The montages are rich in the diversity of Iran. After titles, there is a long aerial view along coastline of Iran. Other aerial views of diversity of landscape, urban center (Teheran), are shown. Camera then focuses on shots of street scenes: Traffic cop; busy street; crying child; interesting people; police or military musicians; then quick shift to flute player making music for natives dancing; lots of close-up of crowd scenes -- traditional Muslims and western dressed Muslim women; laughing girls in elaborately tiled mosque that echoes when they clap and laugh. Aerial views of Jamkaran Mosque with minarets and Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque. Montage of flowers around Teheran that mirror the dome of Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque. Swooping aerial shot as call to prayer echoes from minarets. Several views of various minarets and towers and communication towers broadcasting call to prayer. Short shots of: Pipe shop. Coffee shop. Raging oil well fire. Swooping aerial photograph across oil processing tanks. Natural gas burn off. Family in truck refueling. This is a particularly nice shot from various angles of the truck and the whole family gathered in the car. Close up of Camel head and then five racing camels with riders in robes. Some slo-mo so gait of camels makes clear the beauty of camel gait. One good shot of side view of camel and rider. The lopping gait is clear and the rider’s equanimity on the camel’s back is interesting. There is a sequence of images of the dust and sun. One woman is drawing water up from a well using an old oil can. She looks at a helicopter circling above. There is a cut to a woman’s masked face looking in a microscope. When the shot pulls back, the face is not covered, and the person is a young scientist. Several young men and women in a lab -- probably a school class. Man watching girl write Arabic in notebook. Long composite shot of dust and falling dirt that then becomes water. Composite shot of rice paddies from aerial position, then down with women who are working these fields, to close up of their fingers planting. Rural Teheran whose architecture is of sheaves of plants, roofed cone-shaped homes. Several shot of women tending children and children’s binding. Close up of children’s faces. Zoom in on Shah and his wife in on wall. There is a composite of the Shah’s jewels, his home with its crystal chandeliers, and interior architecture. Shah and wife in a receiving line. More of a reception for the Shah and his wife. The event is reflected on a guard’s polished silver head wear. A lot of glistening surfaces ending with a pull back that is but frosting on a cake. Fishermen in a boat at dusk. They pull a net of fish out of the water and the scene moves to their handling on shore -- rinsing, gutting, removing roe, to the processing and canning of Iranian Caviar. Cut to a series of shots of Turkman Tribes. Some of the cultural and athletic traditions and rites are depicted. Turkish horse breeds are the earliest domesticated horses and highly sought after. There are all-male dances by the riders of the horses as women sit in a circle about them. Film then cuts to Iranian men doing some sort of physical training. They use two very heavy looking clubs and do their exercises/rites en suite with other men. From a camera position above the addition, the men do patterned strength-training exercises on the floor. This has a homoerotic element. Then the film shows one young man spinning with his arms straight out from his body. The sounds track switches to a helicopter sound. The next scene is an aerial view above many carpets on the ground. They are seen being beaten (to remove dust?) and then washed in a stream. With the camera on the other side of a carpet loom, weaver’s fingers are shown going in and out of the weft. The sound given off is like plucking strings of an instrument. Or maybe it is a type of instrument used as background sound. Carpet area again shown on the ground from above. The many pattern look like meticulously tiled floor patterns. The young boys who weave these carpets walk across them and jump into the river. Milling school children in regulation dress -- both boys and girls -- mill around as students do. Freeze frame on young face, then a sharp cut to the face of the Shah. Shah shown galloping on his horse down an row of trees. Shot cut to show the free horses running like the wind. Then a long travel shot of some Babylonian or Assyrain ruins. Interior views of statuary intermingled with faces of the native people in the area. The last shot of the film is of young people holding hands then statues from the past also holding hands.