Berlin wrapup : Petr Lom’s LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT : [7/10]
This informative, raucously lively documentary on the state of present-day Iran packs an awful lot into its briskly-edited 74 minutes. Czech-born Canadian director/editor/cinematographer Petr Lom enjoys a surprisingly free rein as he wanders the country, from the teeming streets of Tehran to more secluded rural areas – only occasionally rubbing up against the kind of police-state repression which one has come to associate with Iran from western media.
And while he concentrates on one specific aspect of Iranian life – the fact that literally millions of the citizens write to the President, Mahmoud Ahmedinajad each year, to ask for his personal intervention with their problems – by the end we feel as though we've obtained a surprisingly panoramic glimpse of a fascinating country at a turbulent stage in its development.
What really makes the film is the way Lom allows so many ordinary Iranians to get their views across – indeed, the whole movie is about different forms of "vox populi". And talk they do – sometimes ecstatic in the praise they shower on their political leader ("we all like him because he thinks about the poor" … "we love Ahmedinajad! … "In the west, he is feared" … "he thinks he is a servant of the people"), at other times more critical or even caustic as they give vent to their frustrations in a nation where inflation runs at 90% ("No milk. No meat. How should we eat?"… "We have no elections or water.")
A picture builds of an unusually direct (if evidently flawed) variant of quasi-democracy, with the charismatic Ahmedinajad – who's at one point actually shown kissing babies – repeatedly keen to emphasise his folksy, grass-roots appeal. No doubt this is partly because the wily politico he knows all too well that the real power in Iran lies with the clergy, specifically Ayatollah Khameini (Lom includes rare footage of the latter speaking on-camera) – and one of the most intriguing elements of the movie is the exploration of the "Mahdi" prophecy, an Islamic belief that roughly equates with the Christian concept of the second coming.
With no narration and sparing use of explanatory on-screen captions, Lom isn't able to fully explore or explain Iran's unusual structures of government (at one point someone mistakenly comments that "the president is the most important person in Iran") – nor does he ever talk to Ahmedinajad directly – but these omissions are easily outweighed by the raw, rough immediacy of his footage and the way he captures the very different atmospheres of different parts of the country.
There's a fair amount of humour here – someone comments that Queen Elizabeth "shops with a basket just like ordinary people", while Lom is frequently berated (as "the foreigner") by his more cagey interviewees. Most of them, including a large proportion of females and younger people, are, however, notably relaxed and chatty on-camera. While nobody's idea of a measured, analytical documentary, this is instead topical behind-the-headlines cine-reportage of an unusually accessible and energetic kind, one that could surely be expanded to 90 minutes or more. Ahmedinajad we're assured at one point, "is here to see reality as clearly as possible." If so, he should order up a private viewing of Letters to the President the next time he finds a spare moment in between baiting the west – and dealing with his beloved, indefatigable correspondents.
Neil Young
1st June, 2009
LETTERS TO THE PRESIDENT : [7/10] : Canada/Iran 2009 : Petr LOM : 74m : seen at CinemaxX cinema, Berlin [press show – Forum section], Wednesday 11th February – Berlinale [Berlin International Film Festival]