AbuAhzan

Parviz Sayyad, a popular comic director in Iran before the revolution, had to leave his homeland and wound up in America with no funds to pursue his cinematic art. Somehow he scraped together the shoestring to get this one filmed, fortunately. It's a brilliant, compelling examination of what it means to follow your ideals, after you find out that everything you thought was wrong.

A young Iranian arrives in New York. He is a quiet, serious, pious Muslim. His orders: find the ex-SAVAK officer and kill him. While trailing the ex-SAVAK officer in New York's subway, he accidentally meets him face to face while helping him escape muggers. From his pocket falls the Qur'an with Persian translation. The ex-SAVAK officer picks it up and sees the Persian writing. Hey! You're from Iran too, what a coincidence, we must become friends! They do, in fact, become friends. The pious young Muslim assassin finds out that the ex-SAVAK officer is a nice guy, not a bad guy after all. He has two cute kids, and they love their new uncle from Iran (the assassin). How he can find it in his heart to kill this nice guy? Meanwhile he makes ablution and prays in his cockroachy apartment. The assassination commander tries to call him on the phone, but he does not answer so as not to interrupt his prayer. The assassination commander comes to see him, saying "Why don't you answer the phone? Praying? Oh, you are so pious" -- while he guzzles beer! So the young assassin faces a dilemma: he wanted to serve Islam, but he is forced to confront the question of where is real Islam -- in the revolution? Or in his heart? Then he is not sure what he should really do. The tragic ending is wrenching indeed.

This movie is made with heart and sympathy, about discovering moral ambiguity in one's own soul. An excellent view of the spiritual problems with the Iranian revolution made by an expatriate with no resources but his wit and his heart. If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it.

I liked the way this film shows, quite realistically, how easy it is for a foreigner or anyone to approach the spiritually loving side of Islam through Sufism. As Kate Winslet's character drifts through her random adventures, experiencing joys and frustrations, she has only three anchors to keep her in touch with reality: 1) caring for her kids; 2) love for the Moroccan gentleman; 3) discovering mystical nearness to Allah through Sufism. This last focus is open to anyone visiting a Muslim country like Morocco; it makes it easy and natural to be accepted by the common people and become part of their lives, no matter what country you come from. The Sufi Islam of Morocco is more open and welcoming than most cultures in the world. There was one telling scene where Kate finds an impenetrable barrier to communication with a wealthy modernized Moroccan who rejects his people's Sufi heritage. But she has no trouble fitting in with the common people once she gets used to their ways.

The enigma of the Iron Giant's complex nature is a literary device to make us look at ourselves. The Giant is a mirror of humanity; making him a space alien is a way of bringing another perspective to our human nature. On the one hand, we humans seem to be programmed as death machines. On the other hand, we have compassionate souls. Which will predominate? The key to the whole story is simply "You are what you choose to be." Your innate compassion can override your death program.

The character of Mansley the bad guy is so malicious as to be actually psychotic. His only function is to show the madness of the human death programming taken to extremes. It makes us look back on the Cold War and wonder what the hell went wrong. The name "Mansley" symbolically reflects on Man, who has allowed this insanity to run away with the human race. The Giant's choice of compassion over death programming is inspiring and uplifting; to get that across in a movie any more you have to disguise it as a kid's movie, but this one is equally enjoyable for kids and adults alike.

The technical side of this film shows the impressive advances in conventional animation, to remind us that computer animatronics are not necessarily the last word in this art form. The most stunning light shows, however, involve weapons of mass destruction.

The Giant's seemingly miraculous ability to regenerate himself as well as whip out a mind-boggling array of destructive devices reminds me of Arthur C. Clarke's dictum: "Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic."