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Babäk (1979)
Babek
The film "Babak" (1979) which was directed by Eldar Guliyev was a product of cooperation between "Azerbaycanfilm" and "Mosfilm." The prominent Azerbaijani historian Ziya Bunyadov was one of the advisers. The film has used historical material about Babak and Khurramis as skeleton and has added its own flesh to it. Sequence of events and characters are represented according to historical sources. However there are overtly anachronistic elements. Narrative and representation is distorted according to the needs of official Soviet ideology and Azerbaijani nationalism. Representation of Babak and Khurrami movement is completely compatible with Soviet Azerbaijani historiography in this sense. Babak is represented as a national hero who fought for equality in the society, common ownership and moral subjugation. He is also a hero fighting for the freedom of Azerbaijan against Arab invaders. The film depicts how Babak joins Khurramis, how he gets to the top of the movement, his struggle against various Arab commanders send from Baghdad, and lastly his capture and execution.
Babak's place in Azerbaijani history and culture may seem strange considering the fact that Azerbaijanis are Muslims and Babak is known for his resistance against Muslim Arabs and caliphate and his brutal treatment of Muslim population. However this actually represents the strong anti-clericalism and Muslim secularism in Azerbaijan. Following the Russian colonial rule powers of the clerical establishment were severely restricted and not like other places in Muslim world secular intellectuals had chance to publish and proselytize their own works. Secularization process continued during the Soviet period as well, and this can explain why identifying with a figure like Babak does not bear inherent conflict for most Muslim Azerbaijanis. In the movie the rebellion is not motivated by religious factor; the conflict portrayed has its seeds in patterns of property ownership and nationalism. Babak is represented as a hero fighting for equality of men and freedom of Azerbaijan. Although Babak and Khurramis are represented as non-Muslims the conflict between them and Arabs is not between Muslims and non-believers, actually there are Muslim elders who are supporting Babak.
There is obviously abundance of anachronistic elements in the film. In the first place the representation of Babak as the national hero who fought for the freedom of Azerbaijan is highly problematic. Apart from this, in the movie the primary source of motivation for Khurramis in their struggle is equality among men and common ownership; the terms equality and freedom are used as equivalents. In fact there is no sound evidence for community of goods among the Khurramis.
There are many elements of symbolism in the movie. Red flag and color is associated with Khurramis and black flag and black color is associated with Arabs and the Caliphate. When Afshin offers Babak cooperation to overthrow Arab Caliphate to establish Iranian state Babak rejects this offer and replies: "I have committed to ideals which demand freedom or death
Either you will be destroyed under the black flag of the caliphate or I will be destroyed under the red flag of the Khurramis." Arab army is associated with destruction, fire and slavery. In one scene on the route of Arab army we see a vulture on a dead body and a crying child next to a dead mother.
Two other striking elements from the film are treatment of woman and relationship between Iran and Azerbaijan. Javidan's wife Zernise is depicted as an active figure who controls the affairs of the castle after her husband's death, and decides who would take his place. She also attends meetings of the decision making council of Babak's commanders and her opinion counts.
Iran and Azerbaijan are treated as two different entities in the film. Although many Azerbaijanis claim that during the period population of the region was Turkic hence different from the rest of Iran, Iranian sources maintain that people were predominantly Persian and the region should be considered as part of greater Iran. In addition, in the film, there is clear reference to Tabriz as Azerbaijani land, and there is delineation of borders between Iran and Azerbaijan in a sense that Hamadan is not considered part of Azerbaijan, whereas Tabriz clearly was.
Saikaku ichidai onna (1952)
Rise of Oharu
The movie is about dramatic tale of a girl from noble samurai family at the service of Imperial Court in Kyoto, who fells in love with a man from a lover rank, and with her love unleashes the calamities emanating from conservative Japanese society and fate. After her fault was discovered she and her family were exiled and her beloved got executed for his transgression. Before his execution he sends Oharu a message instructing her to be happy with a man she would love and not to submit to the authority of the feudal structure by surrendering herself to the dictum of society. With the combined forces of society and fate Oharu experiences most tragic things that may befall on a woman. She gets sold as a concubine to a noble court to breed a heir for the Lord, then her son was taken away from her and she was dismissed. Later in order to pay his debts her father sells her into Shimabara to be a courtesan. Afterwards she was forced to prostitution and once lady at imperial court Oharu's calamitous life of ends up as a beggar. So we see a steep fall of a woman from top of the society to the bottom. However she stays loyal to the request of her beloved all the time she was forced to surrender her body, but she keeps her soul. In this utterly materialistic and cruel world, with its stunning means of subjugation she rejects all these values. Oharu rejects going to house of Lord as a commodity although she may well gain her lost status and favor of the Lord there. She cries only when her son was taken away from her, she cries when her fan maker husband gets killed, etc. For e.g. when she was living in destitute as a prostitute her mother comes and brings her good news that the Lord wants to live with her. Her mother also puts emphasis on material aspects of this news, whereas this only instigates hope in Oharu for a chance to meet her son but for nothing else in material terms. But again it comes out that she was summoned for the shame she brought to the royal court and she was convicted to be exiled. They do not give her a chance to meet her son. She runs away and ends her tumultuous career as a beggar.
So, Mizoguchi represents life of a woman who was made subject to customs of utterly materialistic and oppressive feudalistic society. In a sense Oharu emerges as a victorious from this struggle, she keeps what her first beloved asked from her. But she is not represented as an active actor struggling and showing resistance. She is very passive, submissive and docile. So her victory is not in material sense. She experiences a downfall from the highest rank of being lady at imperial court to be a concubine at a lover court, and then she becomes a courtesan, then a prostitute and ends up as a beggar. But alongside with this fall there is rise of Oharu in idealistic terms with her denial and defiance in the face of this materialistic dictum. She never surrenders to and internalizes the values of the society she lives in. So this fall in materialist terms is accompanied with the rise of her soul with its lofty values. In this sense it is meaningful that she ends up as a beggar which can be seen as total rejection of material life.
Lastly, it is interesting that events are not presented from the point of view of Oharu. Neither it is from the other feudalistic side. Actually Oharu herself is a passive actor. It is more like an objective camera representing us a tale of a women. This respect of the movie makes it one sui generis among many others that were shot on the similar topics.
Excalibur (1981)
a film on the legend
John Boorman's Excalibur is one of the numerous reflections of King Arthur and Holy Grail Story on silver screen. (No less than 262 works exist on the topic) Film tries to represent King Arthur of legend primarily drawing on Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur.
It is obvious that making a historical film on this topic is very difficult as not much is known on the "true" personality of King Arthur. So Excalibur like many other films made on the subject serves to the legend not to the history. Majority of the central personalities in Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur were given voice in the film.
Although their historical representation is questionable, I found Excalibur's display of historical topics like the relationship between the chivalry and courtly love, transition from paganism to Christianity and Grail story interesting.
Sir Lancelot is captured between his loyalty to his king and his love for Arthur's queen Guinevere. His chivalry is superior he defeats all the knights including Arthur himself before joining royal army but once Arthur defeats him he becomes his loyal best friend. However at the same time he falls in love with Guinevere. His long struggle with this temptation is extensively depicted in the movie. Aberth claims that it was Arthurian romances that were largely responsible for linking together the martial ideal of chivalry with the ideal of courtly love.
It is also interesting that Boorman does not find it problematic representing paganism alongside with Christianity without any conflict between the two. Although it seem like the period of transition from paganism to Christianity the conflict between two is no evident anywhere. Magic and sorcery is everywhere, Merlin is almost more central figure than Arthur himself, but still we also see Arthur's wedding taking place in a church and other symbols of Christianity around. Lack of conflict between paganism and Christianity is a distinguishing feature of the film.
Representation of the Grail Story in the film is unusual. It comes out that secret of the Grail is that Arthur and the land are one and there is no religious symbol attached to the Grail. Arthur rejuvenates after drinking from the cup so in a sense he is savior of himself. No reference is made to Christianity at all.
To conclude, although film is not a historical film and based on a legend, it includes important topics from medieval history like the relationship between chivalry and courtly love, transition from paganism to Christianity and the story of Holy Grail, although their historical representation is problematic. Christianity and paganism displayed side by side without any conflict and Holy Grail story is completely de-Christianized in the film.
Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979)
loyal to his tradition
Christ Stopped at Eboli is one of the best movies by Rossi, loyal to his tradition of neorealism. The movie depicts isolated rural-peasant life as an account of an urban intellectual doctor, painter and a political activist who has been exiled to this remote area due to his political dissent during the Fascist rule in Italy. Not like similar movies in lenght, Crist Stopped at Eboli constantly absorbs audience, probably due to its realist description and selective representation of peasant life which is "frozen in time". The film pushes the audience to contemplate on philosophical aspects of the concept of time and it is heavily imbued with the display of social and political problems.
Rosi beautifully describes the destitute of the peasant settlers of this remote and isolated land, their ignorance and apolitical life, the deep rift between these people and state, and the irrelevance of the quasi-comic "victories" of the Il Duce to these people among many other social and political issues. Like Rosi's other movies here again neorealist representation goes along with the combination of documentary techniques and fictional context. Rosi lets the images to speak for themselves rather than the Gian Maria Volente who is in the central role in the movie.
In the movie (as it is in the book), the peasant life and urbanity are represented as two alien civilizations and antithesis of each other. These peasants have their own way of life, own customs, own aspirations and means of joy. What is going on Rome or the war in Abyssinia for "regaining the glory of the Rome" does not capture their interest. They are aware of the state through the taxes collected or men called for military service. In his letter, Levi describes the urban civilization as an antithesis of this peasant life which aspired throughout the history to "colonize" it.
The Christ Stopped at Eboli also pushes the audience to ponder on the philosophical meaning of history, its relevance nature and meaning. It describes this peasant life as "frozen in history", cut from outside life and lacking the understanding of time that we have. History as we understand is the history of "urban civilization". As peasants are alien to this civilization they are alien to this concept of time as well. In the village you stop counting days, hours as they become more and more irrelevant, there you return and base your life on the natural cycle of life which is based on seasons. In this sense the movie challenges our notion of history which is the history of the "city".
In this sense Christ Stopped at Eboli is very analogous to Y. K. Karaosmanoğlu's Yaban. Yaban is also the story of a Turkish intellectual war veteran who abandons amenities of Istanbul for the Central Anatolian village with the hope of finding his roots and alleviating the torments of his memoirs. However, to his disappointment he finds himself in an alien peasant "civilization" where he can not communicate to those people, can not be similar to them and can not understand their aspirations. What makes Yaban and Christ stopped at Eboli similar is their approach to dichotomous nature of human civilization and the concept of time. In both novels there is a representation of antagonist peasant and urban civilizations, and a relative concept of time. In both novels there is description of life which is "frozen in time" and alien to urbanity. Indeed the study of Yaban from this perspective can be insightful for the discussions of continuity and change in the History of Mediterranean, as Turkey is widely excluded from such studies. However when you read Christ stopped at Eboli and Yaban what strikes you first is the patterns of similarity in peasant life and experience of the intellectuals visiting these places. They can back both the universality of "two civilizations" argument and lounge duree approach in the Mediterranean area.