Godspeed Discovery!

I am few hours away,
From seeing the dreams of yesterday,
The hopes of today,
And the reality of tomorrow*,
All in one place.

A childhood friend,
Now a mother with a baby girl,
And me,
Have a hot date watching
Discovery fade away
For the last time in its long history.

Bon Voyage Discovery!
You have been more than great.
"Light this candle, make it right!"

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* Referring to Robert Goddard's famous quote: "It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow."

سنگى در دريا

دل من تنگ است و
دل تو سنگ.

سنگى ميشوم برايت
بسى سخت.
همين راميخواستى، نه؟

نه! تو ميخواهى سنگى،
نه، صخره اى باشى در دريا
موج ها بيايند و بروند
گاهى مهربان،
گاهى خشمگين.
گاهى برايت بنوازند،
گاهى لرزه بر اندامت بيندازند.

و تو همان طور آرام،
ساكت،
بى تحرك،
استوار بمانى،
و از اين همه تكاپو به وجد آيى،
و پايدارى ات را، قدرتت را،
به رخ دريا بكشى;
غافل از اينكه دريا، از سكوت و سكون متنفر است.
دريا، عاشق همنوايى و همراهى است.

حيف كه نميدانى
دريا با تو مهربان است
در چشم به هم زدنى
در روزى كه خيلى دور نيست
اگر اراده كند
تمام شن هاى زيرت را خالى خواهد كرد
و تو به پوچى تمام ادعاهايت پى خواهى برد.

دل دريا در يك سنگ نميگنجد،
و اين حقيقتى است گاهى تلخ.

Reality and dreams!

"The world of a filmmaker is marked by the interplay between reality and dreams. The filmmaker uses reality as his inspiration, paints it with the color of his imagination, and creates a film that is a projection of his hopes and dreams.

The reality is I have been kept from making films for the past five years and am now officially sentenced to be deprived of this right for another twenty years. But I know I will keep on turning my dreams into films in my imagination. I admit as a socially conscious filmmaker that I won’t be able to portray the daily problems and concerns of my people, but I won’t deny myself dreaming that after twenty years all the problems will be gone and I’ll be making films about the peace and prosperity in my country when I get a chance to do so again.

The reality is they have deprived me of thinking and writing for twenty years, but they can not keep me from dreaming that in twenty years inquisition and intimidation will be replaced by freedom and free thinking.

They have deprived me of seeing the world for twenty years. I hope that when I am free, I will be able to travel in a world without any geographic, ethnic, and ideological barriers, where people live together freely and peacefully regardless of their beliefs and convictions.

They have condemned me to twenty years of silence. Yet in my dreams, I scream for a time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other’s opinions, and live for each other.

Ultimately, the reality of my verdict is that I must spend six years in jail. I’ll live for the next six years hoping that my dreams will become reality. I wish my fellow filmmakers in every corner of the world would create such great films that by the time I leave the prison I will be inspired to continue to live in the world they have dreamed of in their films.

So from now on, and for the next twenty years, I’m forced to be silent. I’m forced not to be able to see, I’m forced not to be able to think, I’m forced not to be able to make films.

I submit to the reality of the captivity and the captors. I will look for the manifestation of my dreams in your films, hoping to find in them what I have been deprived of."

Open letter from Jafar Panahi - On the occasion of the Opening of the 61st Berlinale

Salve

Last night I saw the movie Salve or "مرهم" in Farsi by Alireza Davoodnejad. It was a well-made movie. For the most part, I was shocked by the characters in the movie. How everyone spoke by yelling at each other, how the youth in Tehran entertained themselves, how they would betray each other, and yet despite all that how easily they trusted each other again. It was as if I was seeing a foreign movie myself, not one from my own hometown. I felt detached and experienced culture shock. However, the moral story of the movie and the way it was conveyed was a masterpiece.

Davoodnejad showed the power of choice, the difference between being an observer and active participant, and the power of love so beautifully. The love that does not know any barriers of distance or generation gap. The love of an old religious grandmother who shadows her addicted granddaughter just to be there for her if she needed her. The love that makes her go to the most unlikely places for a woman of her age. She is everything to the granddaughter who was punished by her own father and abandoned by her so called lover and friends. The presence of the old religious seemingly cold and detached grandmother is all that girl needs to be saved: someone who loves her and cares for her.

من درك نميكنم، لطفا من را روشن كنيد.

اگر جلوى چشم شما يك نفر را بخواهند دار بزنن چى كار ميكنين؟ چشم هاتون رو ميبندين و گوش هاتون و ميگيرين؟ يا مثل فيلم سينمايى دنبالش ميكنين و تخمه ميشكونين؟ يا اينكه سعى ميكيند اجرا كنندگان حكم رو منصرف كنيد، حتى اگر نتيجه اى نداشته باشه. يا داد و بيداد راه ميندازيد و شهر و شلوغ ميكنيد تا همه بفهمن چه فاجعه اى داره رخ ميده، تا حد اقل كسى غير از شما هم بدونه كى كى چى كار كرد. بلكه آدمهاى ديگه اومدن كمك، ، تا اعدامچى را منصرف كنند، يا اگر نشد تهديد كنند، عواقب بدى رو بهش خاطر نشان كنند، بى آبروش كنند، يا شايد هم حد اقل سرش و گرم كنند و گولش بزنن و شخص محكوم رو فرارى و پناه بدن؟

ماه گذشته هشتاد نفر در ايران اعدام شدن. ما جز تماشا چه كرديم؟ در ايران صدا و سيما تحت كنترل دولته، اينترنت فيلتره، بهونه ما در خارج چيه؟ صداى خانواده هاشون رو به گوش دنيا رسونديم يا نه؟ نميشه بگيد نميدونستيم. من نميفهمم كسى كه روزى صد بار فيس بوك رو چك ميكنه، در باره هر مقاله و آهنگ و حرف دوستى كامنت ميده، چطور چشمش رو براى كمپين نجات يك جوان بى گناه ميبنده؟ از نظر نوع دوستى و انسان دوستى، فرقى نميكنه كه شخص مال كجاى دنيا باشه، اما اگر هموطنتون هست، هم دانشگاهيتون بوده، هم دوره ى بوديد، هم رشته اى هم هستيد، اگر شما كمك نكنيد، كى قراره بكنه؟ فكر نميكينيد واقعا ممكن بود سر خود شما بياد؟ الان بيشتر از 1000 نفر اين كمپين رو امضا كرده اند:

http://saeedmalekpour.freepoliticalprisoners.net/index.php

هيچ فايده يى هم كه نداشته باشه سعيد ملكپور و خانواده اش ميدونند كه تنها نيستند، اميد ميگيرند، روحيه ميگيرند. خاموشى گناه ماست. اعتراض به بى عدالتى ها در كمال امنيت و آسايش كمترين كاريست كه ميتونيم بكنيم. خيلى دوست دارم دليل چشم بستن و سكوت دوستان مطلع، مخصوصا شريفى ها رو بدونم. من درك نميكنم، لطفا من را روشن كنيد. شما چه هزينه اى حاضريد بپردازيد تا بى عدالتى ها و ظلم ريشه كن بشه؟ تايپ كردن يك اسم چقدر براى شما گران تمام ميشود وقتى بيشتر از هزار نفر اين كار رو كرده اند؟