red suitcase
supervision Cyrus Neschbad, 2022
Iran’s new filmography continues to challenge orthodoxy, but ‘The Red Suitcase’, first released in 2022, is a welcome vehicle for international protest. Iran has been rocked by civil protests that confirm that a long-silent public has reached a point of no return in opposition to the regime. Now only the ruthless security services and large secret agencies that are everywhere manage to hold the citizens of the Islamic Republic to ransom. In this cruel and secretive theocracy, women suffered disproportionately at the callous tentacles of a moralistic police force.
Intrusive networks that provide information to neighbors effectively stifle public life. Into this depressing play of moral oppression comes positive feedback for this Oscar-nominated short film, which (conversely) puts a more positive focus on Iran. For those in despair, this is a reminder that the Ayatollah is openly targeting international satire or global condemnation on the world’s biggest stage, Hollywood.
The Oscar-nominated ‘The Red Suitcase’ demonstrates the potential of protest films to powerfully place injustice on the global agenda. This work has more to offer in its cinematic moments than the past painful year of sporadic street warfare against Iranian authorities. Set at Luxembourg Airport, the film tells the story of a 16-year-old Iranian girl from Tehran who nervously takes off her headscarf in defiance of a medieval male dictatorship. The film by Iranian-born, Luxembourg-raised filmmaker Cyrus Neshvad “exposes the beautiful body of my country to the regime’s cancer-causing virus… Get rid of this virus and your body will thrive again.” He said. He told AFP. The film includes graphic photos of Iranian state repression and scenes of police assaulting retreating female protesters.
Violent protests in Iran were sparked by the 2022 death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman who was detained for incorrectly wearing a headscarf as directed by her religious leaders. The scale and intensity of the street riots threatened the Islamist theocracy that took power in 1979. <빨간 여행가방>conveys the momentum of the current Iranian uprising, but was filmed a year before it began. Despite the oppression of the Moral Brigades everywhere, the Iranians felt that Massa must be avenged. The regime responded by cracking down with arrests and executions, including covert threats against the country’s sports figures and film producers. At film studios, plainclothes police monitor operations and note the discouragement of the fragile acting industry.
Iran’s Oscar-nominated protest film is rooted in the injustices faced by the director’s family, who as Baha’is are systematically persecuted in Iran. Cyrus also sees firsthand the neuroses and anxieties long experienced by Iranian girls and women among her own relatives. Amini’s tragic death has brought these patriarchal inequalities back into the world’s attention. Neshvad points out: “Women in Iran are dominated by men… If a woman wants to do something or visit something, the man (her father or husband) has to agree and fill out and sign the papers… For the girl, removing her veil in my film is… It was a moment of courage… It was a moment where she resisted the path forced upon her and at the same time inspired those who saw her… It will be a message like this: ‘Follow me. Wear hijab like me. Fuck off, don’t accept this domination, be free, at least have free will to decide.”
Nawel Ebad, the 22-year-old lead actress of ‘The Red Suitcase’, is a French-Algerian who protests the issues of women and Islamic headscarves and the Western debate surrounding them. “I grew up in a Muslim family and I used to wear it,” she told AFP in Paris. “This is what I find so beautiful about this film… the doubts that anyone can face in any country, in any culture… what do I choose? Do I listen to my family? “Am I making my choice?” Criticism toward the West also appears implicitly in the film.
Neshvad’s French scriptwriting partner Guillaume Levil also suggested that the film’s sexual airport advertisements exploited women. The film’s final image, an advertisement showing a blonde model, symbolizes two social coercions. The director said, “As the camera gets closer to her face, she looks increasingly unhappy, and when she gets very close, she even looks scared…” Finish the movie. So (criticizing) not just one side, but both sides.”
The Iranian regime systematically discriminates against women and commits violence and sexual exploitation of girls. For ‘crimes’ such as appearing in public with head uncovered, they imprison, whip women, and even commit extrajudicial killings. They harass activists who defend women’s rights. Forcibly separating women and men. The judicial system disproportionately punishes women. Denies women political and economic opportunities. Family and inheritance laws favor men over women. The Islamic regime violently enforces head coverings. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Iranian regime has required women and girls over the age of nine to wear the hijab (Islamic head covering) in public. The government brutally suppressed protests against these demands.
Iran’s Islamic criminal code states that “women who appear in public places and roads without wearing the Islamic hijab will be sentenced to 10 days to 2 months in prison or a fine of 50,000 to 5 million rials.” 638). The article also allows for the sentence of “two months in prison or up to 74 lashes” for “any person (who) openly commits a haram (sinful) act.” Women who do not wear headscarves or other body coverings in public may be harassed by the “moral police” (MP), detained, fined or flogged. Many Iranians have expressed opposition to mandatory hijab, including the ‘White Wednesday’ campaign (launched in 2017) where Iranians wear white in street protests. A video showing the rebellious actions of women called ‘Revolutionary Girls’ is going viral around the world. In response, President Ebrahim Raisi significantly strengthened the enforcement of hijab.
Mahsa Amini’s arrest and state murder appears even more heartbreaking in light of The Red Suitcase’s Oscar nomination. It is important to note the forensic pathology of these tragic events. On September 13, 2022, morality police arrested Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian, on the streets of Tehran while she was visiting the city with her family. They dragged her away from her family and told Amini’s brother that they were detaining her for wearing an “inappropriate” hijab and taking her to “education and orientation classes.”
According to witnesses, police threw her into a van and beat her to death inside the vehicle. en route To the police station. Police allegedly doctored the crime scene to make it look like she had suffered a heart attack. The recovered body was so badly bruised that the coffin had to be closed. Following Amini’s death, thousands of Iranians across Iran took to the streets to protest against the regime. After this brutal act, mass demonstrations chanted “Women, life, freedom,” “Death to Khamenei,” and “Death to the dictator.”
More and more women are going out without their hijab, and some are taking off their hijabs in public or even burning them. The regime immediately arrested the female journalist (Nilupar Hamidi) who drew attention to Amini’s death. She spent some time in solitary confinement at the notoriously cruel Evin Prison and lives with the risk of further action by the state every day. There are flickers of hope that The Red Suitcase’s prominence at major film festivals, including a strong reception at the Oscars, could force religious leaders to reform the worst of police violence. There has recently been an unprecedented mass pardon for street protesters.
But it would be naive to expect that this embattled regime can bring about real change. As the red suitcase shows, for the lucky few, the only option they can think of is escape. Like the girl in this Oscar-nominated film, the producers had to leave Iran to truly express themselves. If there is a new, indigenous film about Iranian protests, it is likely to be sustained by expatriates rather than indigenous film crews. Nonetheless, the unprecedented success of The Red Suitcase, one of the few Iranian films recently nominated for an Oscar, demonstrates the potential of cinematography as a means of protest against a corrupt and brutal theocracy.
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