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Hamoun
Dariush Mehrjui studied filmmaking at UCLA but switched to the philosophy
department, which is where he earned his degree. Yet the Iranian director's
understanding of filmmaking is no less deep and wide as the ongoing
philosophical conversation running beneath the surface of his films. Mehrjui
has directed literate versions of Western literary classics, from Ibsen's
A Doll's House to J.D. Salinger's Franny & Zooey. In this
film, Hamid Hamoon is an artist agonized by his own existential wrestling,
and he is especially haunted by that which provoked so much fear and trembling in
Kierkegaard, the sacrifice of Isaac by his own father, Abraham. That a
descendent of Abraham's other son, Ishmael, should find the Christian
Kierkegaard's musings on this subject so compelling is only one thread of a
story that is woven with Hamoon's favorite books, which also include
Franny & Zooey and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
Watch for the incredible literalization of the conflict of Jihad and McWorld,
in the form of a Samuri fight between Hamoon's Japanese-product-loving boss
and a Muslim Mullah -- on roller skates. That's the sort of mind-expanding
absurdity and philosophical questioning one finds in this marvelous film.
Copyright 2002, Cornerstone Communications,
Inc.
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