The New Filmfarsi, with a Dose of Racism

Writing about the new Filmfarsi productions that, with artificial and self-coined adjectives such as “social,” “political,” “intellectual,” “prestigious,” and “value-based,” often with stolen and degraded non-Iranian scenarios, weak acting, shoddy sets, and by mocking the intelligence and the last vestiges of humanity remaining in our people, have today contaminated the country’s cinemas and, subsequently, other media, is a task that, even if done in the form of a complete critique, is highly profitable for them.

These “things”—calling them by titles such as “cinema,” “film,” or in a similar case “theater” (for the contaminated and filthy products of obscene plays)—are an insult to the entire history of cinema and theater, and more generally, to art. Therefore, it seems that silence should be the best response to these manifestations of suppressed inferiority complexes that, in an ever-growing greed for box-office returns, avarice, and the worship of money and fame, have gripped a large portion of those who unfortunately call themselves “artists.”

But sometimes the consequences arising from a film or program, such as a film with the promotional title (for America) “Lottery” and its promotion of lumpenism (by equating it with values like honor and reputation), are so insulting, so ugly, and consequently so dangerous that breaking the silence is warranted, even at the cost of giving them more publicity and financial gain.

The name that was mentioned, and which we will not repeat, is one of these instances of new Filmfarsi that has recently been screened. This time, it not only seeks to drag the adjective “value-based” behind it and, for example, be a new model of “Qeysar” for us and present us with a pattern of “honor,” but it has gone even further. By creating a totally ridiculous and filthy “hidden camera” segment that is, in the truest sense of the word, disgusting, racist, and insulting, it attempts to promote the worst traits and immoralities among our people: from violence to racial prejudice, from the humiliation of other cultures to presenting a lumpen image of what it calls “national culture.”

Add to this the repeated insults by the state broadcaster towards Iranian ethnic groups, which are claimed each time to have been “unintentional” yet are repeated every time, with no one held accountable, and the matter must constantly be considered closed with an “apology” until the next insult arrives: I am clearly referring to the removal of the Arab family doll from the map of Khuzestan in one of the children’s programs (programs that are apparently becoming a particular locus for such insults).

Apparently, our national culture must be one where we pull knives, curse, beat people up, ridicule “Arabs,” flaunt our ignorance by, for instance, not understanding that Arab clothing (which is also the clothing of millions of Iranians) has nothing to do with the sheikhs of the Persian Gulf, and, for some reason unknown to us, take pride in these idiotic and hateful acts, and then express surprise after such widespread rudeness and immorality has taken root in our society.

We ridicule Arabs and are unwilling to understand in any language that the governments of a country have nothing to do with the people of that country, and whatever problems we have with Arab governments pertain to the realm of politics, not culture. We apparently do not want to understand that several million of our country’s population are Arab and are among the most loyal and self-sacrificing Iranians, who have never betrayed this land over several thousand years and have always shown the greatest sacrifice with the least wages and financial and material gain, under the harshest climatic conditions, deprivations, and disrespect.

We ridicule Arabs, while the Arabic language is our religious language, the language of our holy book, and the language of hundreds of millions of people around the world; we humiliate Arab culture, while in the world, it has claimed one of the most flourishing sectors of music, art, and literature and enjoys the highest cultural standing; the Nobel Prize has been awarded to Arabic literature; Arabs are prominent in all artistic, literary, and technological fields globally. It must be noted that today, in no developed country can one even imagine that such insults as those perpetrated by this ridiculous Filmfarsi and its even more idiotic hidden camera clip against Arabs as a culture, and not against the politics of Western governments, could be shown.

If we were in a democratic country with a cultural heritage, each of the makers of this film, and especially that clip, would be subject to legal prosecution, and those who, in their tweets and network comments, hurl the worst insults at the most deprived people of our country would almost all face heavy fines for racism and even the risk of imprisonment.

And let us not forget that even in our own country, when we had not yet fallen into this regression of racism—that is, during the days of the Sacred Defense—while Saddam Hussein's dictatorial government systematically used racial slogans against Iran, neither before, during, nor after the war did we ever use such slogans against "Arabs." But unfortunately, as a result of giving free rein to a group of "Pan-Iranist thinkers"—in reality, fascists—in recent years, here anyone can, by confiscating lofty values such as honor, reputation, dignity, moral values, love of Iran, and Iranian culture... exhibit the most anti-Iranian, anti-cultural, and anti-national methods, slogans, and behaviors, and offer the most disgraceful and anti-value "artistic" and "cinematic" products, polluting the intellectual environment and pushing the country toward tensions from which we need to distance ourselves today more than ever.

The question is, what are the makers of such a film and such ridiculous, hateful clips really after? Are they seeking to set our people against one another? To strengthen racist instincts within them? To reinforce the myths of Aryanism and antiquarianism in a country where the harmony and synergy of ethnicities, languages, religions, and cultures, and their mutual respect for one another, has always been the cause of preserving calm and peace?

Do the makers of these "things" not know how, in twentieth-century Europe, millions of people were sent to their deaths because of such buffoonery, racial insults, and the excessive demands of national and ethnic supremacists, and a large part of that continent was razed to the ground? Do they not know that we live in a region where more than half of it has so far been razed to the ground by the great powers' exploitation of these very national, racial, tribal, and ethnic tendencies, and that even today, these powers have no qualms about dragging our country into a ruinous war to secure cheap and reliable energy resources?

Do they not know that most of the wars of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries began by fueling ethnic conflicts and then dragged everyone into misery and wretchedness, with the profits going solely into the pockets of capitalists, warmongers, and sellers of various weapons? Do they not know that promoting lawlessness, promoting lumpenism, and placing thugs and ruffians on a pedestal of honor in a sphere where even its "intellectuals" suffer from lumpenism, self-centeredness, stupidity, and nouveau-riche pretentiousness, is an unwise act and a fire that will engulf everyone?

Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions may be negative. Historical experiences have shown that the greatest encourager of racism and lumpenism is cultural poverty and a lack of understanding of culture and its complex mechanisms, a lack of understanding of history, and a lack of understanding of art and the subtleties hidden within it: let us look at France, Germany, and America today and see who most defends the racist, Islamophobic, anti-Arab, and anti-foreigner right—precisely the least educated and most uncultured strata of the people.

For this reason, one should not be surprised why racism and the shameful tendencies we see in the comments of individuals of the same thuggish ilk, in defense of so-called "patriotism" and attacks on their imaginary enemies, the "Arabs," have spread to this extent.

It is not Arabs, Turks, Mongols, Chinese, French, Germans, and Americans whom we should consider our enemies, but rather, in most cases, governments that act as much against us as they do against the people of their own countries. These peoples each create cultures that have contributed to the flourishing of global culture.

When we Iranians, too, instead of succumbing to the temptations of racism, have been or are concerned with the growth of our own culture and not the denigration of others', we have also played and continue to play a significant role in this regard. And what has been said does not mean that we play no role today. Whether it is us, non-Iranian Arabs, Turks, or others, we all harbor within ourselves the best and the worst of traits together, but whether we strengthen the worst traits in ourselves through our actions, behaviors, words, and writings, or the best of them, requires a correct understanding of relationships, cultures, the world around us, history, art, and life, and making the right decision based on this correct understanding and knowledge.

No culture has ever managed to gain any dignity for itself by denigrating other cultures. Therefore, firstly, the insults that ruffians offer in their comments in favor of "Iranian culture" and "patriotism" must be read correctly; that is, the mask must be removed from them and their fundamental enmity toward everything that is Iran and Iranian must be seen. This is especially necessary for Iranian ethnic groups, so that they do not attribute these insults from a lumpen group to the great, powerful, and ancient Iranian culture, of which they themselves have built a large part.

But our situation is more acute than this. With the insults that have today taken on a daily form and, as we said, are carried out with the backing of a group of our intellectuals and so-called "thinkers" and "philosophers," and the larger backing of our domestic neoliberals from the first group and the pressure on the government to act in that direction, we are witnessing something dangerous: that by confiscating the name of Iran and defending the homeland and the nation, a blow is dealt to our ethnic groups, who have always been the guarantors of our country's independence, freedom, and defense. In truth, we are doing nothing but a kind of self-harm. Millions of Iranian Arabs, Iranian Turks, Iranian Kurds, and so on... all have shown time and again that they hold Iran above and before everything else in their concerns, and even when it has come to defending the country, they have not hesitated for a moment. And now we have given free rein to an ever-larger army of lumpens, street and media thugs and ruffians, and intellectual ones—and in this last case, claimants to a kind of so-called "value-based" work—to undermine this historical and today vitally important cohesion in the face of the serious dangers threatening the country, while seeing themselves as immune from any risk.

If our officials have no answer as to why nothing is done in this regard to deal with the Pan-Iranists and lumpens—and they are even given awards and commended—we must unfortunately and probably expect great dangers, threats, and misfortunes in the future. For this reason, we hope that as soon as possible, a commission or committee at the national level will be formed to examine the causes, motives, and mechanisms of the persistence of racism in the country, both in its theoretical and so-called intellectual aspects and in its lumpen and so-called media and "artistic" forms of expression, and by presenting a comprehensive report, prevent the continuation of this situation in the media, on the country's official and academic platforms, and in various entertainment and other programs.

In addition, as in any democratic and cultured country, action should be taken against all those who wish to earn income, wealth, and fame by fueling racial hatred and insulting each other's cultures. Iran's millennia-old culture, with the great heritage it has had for humanity and in which all its ethnic groups have shared, has no need for such ruffians to defend it.

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The New Filmfarsi, with a Dose of Racism

Author: Nasser Fakouhi

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