Posted by Iranian on November 29, 2007, 9:48 pm, in reply to "In hit Iranian TV drama, Holocaust no 'myth' "
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--Previous Message--
: By Scott Peterson
: Tue Nov 27, 3:00 AM ET
:
:
:
: Tehran, Iran - For seven months,
: millions of Iranians have turned on
: their television sets Monday at 10
: p.m. to watch a World War II drama
: that challenges stereotypes about
: Iran and Judaism.
:
: The story line could not be less
: likely in the Islamic Republic,
: whose president calls the Holocaust
: a "myth": An
: Iranian-Palestinian student in
: France helps save his love – a
: French Jew – and her family from the
: Nazis and from becoming victims of
: the Holocaust. This week the 30-part
: love story comes to a spectacular
: end with state-owned television
: broadcasting an encore presentation
: of the final episode, which includes
: a shootout amid the ancient ruins of
: Persepolis.
:
: The message of the series, says
: director Hassan Fathi, is that
: "what is endangering peace is
: extremist thinking, and political
: hard-liners that separate people
: from each other. God created people
: to love each other, regardless of
: religion.... Unfortunately [when it
: comes to] religion the current of
: extremism is always on, creating
: misunderstanding between
: cultures." The Iranian hero and
: his Jewish love are finally united
: in the last scene at the foot of
: Iran's snow-covered Damavand
: mountain, ending a saga sympathetic
: to the fate of European Jews. The
: series is fiction, but inspired by
: Abdol Hussein Sardari, a real-life
: Iranian consul in Paris who issued
: Iranian passports to more than 1,000
: European Jews during World War II so
: they could flee.
:
: The tale surprised many Iranians
: with its apparent challenge to
: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
: statements about the Holocaust.
:
: But "Zero Degree Turn"
: highlights another message commonly
: lost amid fierce anti-Israel
: rhetoric: That Iran and many
: Iranians differentiate between Jews,
: who are meant to be accepted by
: Muslims as fellow monotheists and
: "people of the book;" and
: Zionism, which is officially
: vilified in Iran as the destructive
: ideology of Israel.
:
: That difference is often highlighted
: by Iran's estimated 25,000 Jews, who
: form the largest Jewish community in
: the Middle East outside Israel.
:
: "Of course, nothing in cinema
: and television will be complete
: [but] overall, we think the whole
: story is a positive point for Jews
: in Iran," says Ciamak
: Moresadegh, chairman of the Tehran
: Jewish Committee, which wrote a
: letter of thanks to Iran's
: state-owned television. "The
: problems between the Zionist
: movement and Iran are not related to
: the Jewish population in Iran,"
: says Mr. Moresadegh. The TV drama
: "helps make this clear."
:
: A large number of Jews left Iran
: after the 1979 Islamic Revolution,
: and many were purged as
: untrustworthy from the military
: officer corps and other professions.
: The exodus has slowed considerably,
: but continues. Judaism is an
: officially sanctioned religion, and
: Jews are allotted one seat in Iran's
: parliament. But the Jewish community
: has sometimes come under pressure;
: several Jews arrested in 1999 were
: charged with spying for Israel.
:
: Mr. Ahmadinejad says the six million
: killed in the Holocaust are a modern
: exaggeration used by the West to
: create Israel on occupied Muslim
: lands; and not a birthright of Jews
: who consider Israel a land promised
: them by God. He routinely decries
: Israel, saying the Jewish state will
: be "wiped from the face of
: time."
:
: The final episode of "Zero
: Degree Turn" shows Nazi Germany
: in favor of the Zionist enterprise
: as a way of moving Jews out of
: Europe. In the story, the Zionist
: uncle – who tries to keep the
: Iranian Muslim and his Jewish niece
: apart, sometimes at the point of a
: gun – is seen in a synagogue,
: expounding on the virtues of
: Zionism. "Any Jew who lives
: outside Palestine is not a
: Jew."
:
: The series could not have come at a
: more relevant time for Iranians. The
: president hosted a Holocaust
: conference last December that
: featured Holocaust deniers. In a bid
: to reassure the Jewish community,
: Iran's foreign ministry in March
: facilitated a diplomatic tour of
: Jewish facilities in Tehran.
:
: The magnified relevance of the
: series has been coincidence, says
: Mr. Fathi, a veteran director of
: historical fiction. "I decided
: to produce this series in 2002, and
: in those days the Holocaust was not
: an issue," he says.
:
: "Even if one single Jew is
: killed in German camps, the world
: should be ashamed. By the same
: token, if a single Palestinian dies,
: the world should be ashamed,"
: says Fathi. "I sympathize with
: the Jewish victims of World War II,
: to the same extent [I sympathize]
: with women and children victims of
: the war in Palestine."
:
: The TV series is one of the most
: expensive and elaborate ever
: produced here, with period costumes
: on location in Paris, Budapest, and
: cities in Iran. Iranian viewers say
: the love story and its iconoclastic
: content kept them glued to their
: sets Monday nights. "This was
: the most professional TV series in
: Iranian history. Everybody watched
: it," says one regular viewer.
: "The first episodes were
: counter to what President
: Ahmadinejad was saying, and showed
: the Holocaust existed, so it was not
: clear what the signals were."
:
: But it was not long before the
: differences between Judaism and
: Zionism were made clear, a point
: made by Ali Akbar Velayati, a
: foreign affairs adviser to Iran's
: supreme leader. His live commentary
: immediately after the final segment
: was advertised during the show by a
: ticker along the bottom of the
: screen.
:
: "The European policies created
: Zionism more than the Jews [though]
: extremist Jews had a role. The Jews
: are victims, and Muslims were the
: same," asserted Mr. Velayati.
: "Europeans fighting Jews, the
: last time in Germany, has historic
: roots. And the correlation between
: Zionism and Nazis is known."
:
: The political subtext was secondary
: to the story for many Iranians.
: Iranian character Habib Parsa's
: pursuit of his Jewish heartthrob,
: Sarah, lands him in prison three
: times. She also surmounts constant
: challenges and then is waiting in
: the falling snow when Habib — much
: older — is released from prison.
:
: "It was a very tough night for
: me," says Fathi of the final
: episode. "But I was so happy
: Sarah and Habib got together. The
: days that God is very happy are the
: days that people from different
: cultures hug each other in
: brotherhood."
:
:
: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20071127/wl_csm/ozero;_ylt=AhN_ygnlA6OeBDSyTRR9i2ys0NUE
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