The Iran Job

It is a different take on life in Iran. Kevin Sheppard is a college basketball star turned basketball world traveler as he goes from country to country paid to play basketball. He is not good enough to turn pro but decent enough to play for international leagues. I enjoyed seeing the contrast between the official "America is evil" take that the Iranian government pushes with the kind, warm way that Kevin Sheppard is treated by the Iranian citizens. He meets some pretty Iranian women one of whom develops a crush on him and brings him home to eat with her family. He is oblivious to her interest because he has a girl friend back home. Sweet funny movie with a touch of politics thrown in for good measure.

Viewed at the Los Angeles Film Festival, LAFF, June 15, 2012. The eye-opener of the first weekend was a feature length documentary entitled "The Iran Job" made by German-American director Till Schauder and produced by his Iranian-American wife Sara Nodjoumi. On the surface this is the story of a year in the life of an Afro-American basketball player recruited to revitalize a second rate Basketball team in Iran and get them into the playoffs -- but it soon becomes evident that the sports story is merely the framework for a slam-dunk penetration into the paint of society in the Islamic Republic described by President Bush as part of an Axis of Evil. In 2008, the crucial political year in which Obama became president, Kevin Sheppard signed up to play in Iran. His fiends all advised against such a move but Kevin felt he wanted to try something completely new so he signed a year contract to play in Iran. Soon after his arrival he realizes that politics is a touchy if not dangerous subject in Iran so he resolves to steer clear as much as possible. His relations with colleagues and other friends soon enmesh him whether he likes it or not and the whole film becomes one revelation after another of the extent to which average people resent the repressions forced upon them by the fundamentalist Islamic Government. All this set against news clips from CNN regarding the edgy tension between the USA and Iran.

Only seconds into the film we get a clip of President George Bush to set the mood: Says Bush: "The notion that the US is about to attack Iran is ridiculous ... However, all options are on the table (Audience chuckle). This is followed by a clip of president Ahmedinajad of Iran ranting against Israel and calling for its extermination. The riposte to this is a clip of Hilary Clinton, then a potential presidential candidate, saying: "If Iran attacks Israel we will attack Iran -- and we have the means to obliterate ...!" -- In all exterior shots Schauders roving camera picks up gigantic images of Khomeini and the Ayatolas looking down from walls all over the city. No commentary, but those who know Iran know that this is the Big Brotherhood watching over everyone all the time. It is obvious that the average Iranian is favorably disposed toward Americans on the personal level but one of the first images we see is a wall with a sign saying "Down with USA". The party line and the personal line are in constant clash -- Kevin is convinced that Iranians are especially fond of Black Americans, but when people expect him to be especially supportive of newly elected president Obama on the basis of color, he takes a Wait and See attitude. His doctor says now you have a black president and its your turn-- "You need a black house instead of a White House" -- a joke that Kevin takes with a grain of salt. Along the way Kevin does help the weak Shiraz team make the playoffs but this is incidental to his relationship with three young women who befriend him and, with disarming candor, reveal their dissatisfaction with the regime. Hilda is his assigned physiotherapist but soon becomes his confidante outside of work. Laleh, a friend of hers is a thoroughly outspoken critic of the regime and will later be arrested. Elaheh, Kevin's driver, is strikingly beautiful, wants to be a movie star and looks every bit the part. All speak good English but need help with words like "pissed off". As for the wearing of head scarves, all agree that everyone hates it but have to go along with it because of the law. It is illegal for women to visit mens apartments, illegal for women to travel in cars with men who are not husbands or close family, illegal for men and women to sit in the same stands at a basketball game(!) --at one point women are banned from sports attendance altogether -- it is more and more obvious that the average people, especially the female population, are not very happy to be living in an open air religious prison. The peak of religious fervor comes during the celebration of the Martyrdom of Husein, grandson of the Holy Prophet. Out on the seething streets with his friends, Kevin asks why they are celebrating all this with mourning --wouldnt it be better to celebrate the Life of Husein rather than his death -- the kind of question one does not ask in this rigidly religious society. The tension mounts until the 2009 election where popular liberal candidate Mousavi speaks out against the oppressive regime but is "defeated" in a rigged election. As the film ends it looks like things can only get worse. Neda, a women protester killed is a new martyr. Laleh has been arrested. The only ray of hope, maybe -- is that beautiful Elaheh has been given permission by her father to move to Teheran and perhaps pursue her movie star dreams.

We are informed by end titles that Kevin went back for two more seasons of basketball in Iran, but there is not likely to be a sequel to his story. Director Schauder was blacklisted and very lucky to get out of Iran alive with enough smuggled footage to put together this remarkable film. If a regime change ever does come there "The Iran Job" will undoubtedly become an Iranian liberation classic. Meanwhile the filmmakers are trying to drum up the funding needed to get "The Iran Job" as widely seen as it needs to be, to help clear the currently muddled air between the US and Iran. One of the director's stated purposes is not so much to dramatize the politics of Iran as to show Iranian people in a more human light so that they are not demonized along with their government.

I think basketball is a beautiful and yet complicated game. Iran, at least to my western eyes, is an even more beautiful and infinitely more complicated country. This film is a very simple and sweet glimpse and people who cross over the borders surrounding basketball and Iran.

Just as Kevin Sheppard is not a monumental spokesman for all of the United States, the three sisters cannot capture the thousands of years of Iran/Persian in the past, nor the millions of people living there today.

But the human interest stories in this film are what draw us in on a personal level, Obama's inauguration and the election of Ahmadinejad over Moussavi take place while Kevin joins the Shiraz team in this film. I'm not sure how many "critics" here had they been filmed during those two events would have eloquently captured the moment. Intead I found the dinner when Kevin goes to the house of the Father of the three sisters to be more captivating.

That man, who says nothing on camera during the film, to me was the most fascinating character. Raising three strong women, balancing his belief in them and his faith in Islam, what a story must lie beneath the few moments we spend with them all. Kevin's gesture to politely pass on the head of the table setting at the dinner table was a nice moment of individual ambassador work. But even that scene is tinged with some sadness and misunderstanding as the Mother recaps her surprise that her guests did not stay for hours of fruit, nuts and conversation after the meal.

This film felt like meeting some people in fortuitous circumstances, maybe on a vacation retreat, or in the US at jury duty, where you get a glimpse of meaningful private moments in a mostly public setting. I think I'll wonder about the people on this film here, as I would for such "strangers" I encounter who temporarily break past the estrangement.

Two thoughts based on other comments I've read here. One, the sister Elaheh I don't think had a crush on Kevin so much as she did on the camera. Like many a good actress, her desired vocation, she knew the most important leading man for her is the lens. That being said, the lead-in to a Monday meeting with a potential suitor is set up and then dispatched with nary a follow-up, likely her wishful beau may have been rightfully jealous of the camera wanting to hold his intended in its gaze even while he did the same. Who knows? Also I've seen questions about Zoran, the seven footer from Serbia who does seem a veritable gentle giant. Effectively a migrant worker, away from his own family and young son, apparently in his 30's and it is alluded to his having been through the worst of the war in his homeland. It's almost as if he knows that the story of Kevin, and the sisters and their countries would not fit into this film, much less his own.

The simple truth of this film, that people interacting with each other in person, even with a disparity of background and a possible lack of communication somehow figure out their overwhelming similarities.

First things first, the film was really entertaining. The people who made it were able to see where the story was and chase after it, my original plan had been to watch the initial 20 min of the film and leave the rest for another day but before I knew it I was near the end of the movie; and that can't be said about most films nowadays!

The reason why I didn't give it a higher score is due to some national facts being wrong about Iran, apart from displaying Chris, the basketball player travelling to Iran, as a hero among iranian sheep, which having met many iranians during my life I strongly believe it couldn't have been further away from the truth. Had they left the judging aside and just shown things the way they are, so that the audience can make up their own mind the film might have just been that much better off.

A great unknown among westerners is Iran. Yes, their government and western governments are at odds. But what I am talking about is the country--not the government. What is it like? What are the people like? Well, I cannot answer that first-hand (though I'd like to go there to visit one day), I do know that by glimpsing at the country through films that it isn't really all that different from us. The people, like any people, have similar hopes, dreams and humanity-- something you miss when you watch the news on TV. Try watching some of Majid Majidi's great films like "Children of Heaven" or "The Color of Paradise" and you'll see this humanity.

In the case of "The Iran Job", however, you have a documentary--not a staged film--in order to get a glimpse at life in Iran. Through the course of the film, you travel with Kevin Sheppard as he leaves the familiarity of life in St. Croix (the US Virgin Islands) and moves to Iran to play for one of their teams. Surprisingly, he is NOT treated like an outcast even though the official government position is clearly anti-American. I was shocked how much he bonded with the team and vice-versa and the film gives you glimpses into the way young women are dealing with a harsh Muslim climate as well as the country as it nearly plunged into civil war following their hotly contested election.

All in all, a very well made film that works on many levels (heck, I even liked the rapping in Farsi that is much of the soundtrack). It helps that you genuinely like Sheppard and his teammates but it also gives a rare chance to see folks as folks--and it's a real treat that, unfortunately, too few people will end up seeing.