From: "Margaret" <margaret-AT-rie.net.au>
Subject: AUT: Iran film Director Tamineh Milani Tells of her Prison Ordeal
Date: Sat, 3 Nov 2001 12:10:18 +1100


Director Tells of Prison Ordeal
Director Tells of Prison Ordeal
 'The Hidden Half' landed its Iranian filmmaker, Tamineh Milani, in
political hot water after it opened to audiences in Tehran  To support her
see petition at www.facets.org

By JUDY STONE

CAIRO -- Tamineh Milani, the Iranian director of "Two Women," who recently
served seven days in prison on shadowy, unsubstantiated charges, says she
still does not know the outcome of her controversial case. She believes she
has become a pawn in the ongoing struggle between the liberalizing policies
of President Mohammed Khatami and powerful right-wing fundamentalist forces.

Her new film "The Hidden Half," which is currently playing in Los Angeles,
just won a top prize at the recently completed Cairo International Film
Festival. The film dramatizes events in Iran in 1980, the year after the
Islamic revolution. The hitherto taboo subject touched a raw nerve in Iran.

At that time, in their drive to make the universities Islamic,
fundamentalist forces tried to get rid of all opposition by imprisoning
people thought to be dissidents, and executing some. Other opponents of the
new regime fled the country. That situation comes into public focus for the
first time in the film. A wife played by Niki Karimi--she won the best
actress award at the Cairo festival--appeals to her husband, a judge, to dig
deeply into the case of a woman he is about to try, by telling him about her
own youthful past. She confesses to her activism against the shah during
college and her attraction to a married intellectual with a wandering eye,
played by Mohammad Nikbin (Milani's husband).

In an interview here, Milani talked for the first time about her arrest. Her
husband, who is an architect, translated while she listened closely with
occasional passionate interruptions. When the conversation seemed to get
very serious, their frisky 5-year-old daughter, Gina, cuddled up to her
mother. When Milani was arrested, Gina was told she had gone to a film
festival in London, but after three days she seemed to understand what was
going on and insisted on being with her father all the time.

Oddly enough, Milani's problems started one month after "The Hidden Half"
was shown in Tehran theaters and continued to be screened even after she was
in prison. Late in August, four men went to the couple's office looking for
her and then proceeded to their home, confiscating handwritten notes and
scripts.

According to Milani, they told her, "We have permission to arrest you";
after 15 minutes, they took her, accompanied by her husband, to the
revolutionary court, which is under the control of fundamentalists.
Ordinarily, it would have been possible to post a bond and leave, but the
judge wasn't there so they couldn't release her. She was taken to a single
cell and for several days was not allowed to mingle with other women
prisoners. When they met her, they rallied to her defense, giving her fresh
clothing, volunteering their shower time for her--and suggesting she make a
film about their plight.

"Every day for five hours, I was questioned [by the court] about my movie,"
Milani said. "I was accused of doing things against national security and
collaborating with anti-revolutionary groups outside of Iran. It is one of
the highest accusations they can make, and the sentence is the death
penalty."

After the judge saw the film, he realized there was nothing against Islamic
fundamentalist law in it, but speculation grew that her case was being used
to discredit the Ministry of Culture and Guidance (known as the Ershad)
which had licensed "The Hidden Half," and to intimidate other independent
directors. The rumor was that some unsuccessful filmmakers with powerful
connections were responsible for making life difficult for filmmakers such
as Milani and Jafar Panahi, whose film "The Circle" dealt with women who had
just gotten out of prison. ("The Circle" was released in the U.S. earlier in
the year.)

Meanwhile, Nikbin did not go to the press with the story because the deputy
minister of Ershad was working to get Milani released. At the same time,
concern was rising at the Montreal and Venice festivals about Milani's fate,
petitions were being circulated in her support and questions about the case
were being raised in the press.

At two press conferences, Khatami said he had checked with the information
ministry and was told she had no record of anything subversive in her
background. He said he knew her personally, that she was a very good citizen
and he was amazed at her arrest.

Later, the Ershad minister Masjed Jamee appealed to Ayatollah Ali Khameini,
the supreme leadership, who ordered her immediate release.

"We were extremely worried," Nikbin said. "The court had charges and
accusations but didn't have any documentation. Two hours after she was
released from prison, two groups came from the judiciary office. One came to
our home and took whatever they wanted and another group of five started
searching our office again. They took pictures, videotapes, handwritten
notes, film books and scenarios."

Following Milani's release, she and her husband tried to get the case closed
and their belongings returned. "They have not given us a direct answer about
when we'll get them back or what's going to happen," Nikbin said. Knowing
she was dealing with a controversial subject, Milani said she wanted to make
"The Hidden Half" because she thought it would be in line with Khatami's
proposals to start a dialogue on the past in order to renew the country.

"We need to see what happened to those people [dissidents] the year after
the revolution," Milani said. "I was in my first year of architectural
school. There were many ideologies wanting to get rid of the shah and have a
democratic system, and it ended up with the Islamic republic. How can we
judge a teenager then who emotionally wanted to do something for the country
and may have been attracted to a left-wing group? Many people left the
country at that time for various reasons. Some wanted to become engineers or
doctors, and now they are nothing. This is the story of their lives. They'd
love to come back to Iran, but they can't."

In Iran, the film has been watched by audiences with extraordinarily intense
silence, followed by tears after the screenings and thanks to Milani for
opening up the subject, Nikbin said.

"Until we get rid of the anger some people feel from those days and release
that negative energy first, we can't really be united," he said.

For information about reprinting this article, go to
http://www.lats.com/rights/register.htm

see petition at www.facets.org


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