THE GARDENER:INTROSPECTION OF FAITH BY PRADIP BISWAS, THE INDIAN EXPRESS NEWSPAPERS, INDIA JURY MEMBER OF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA 44TH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL OF INDIA, GOA, 2013 KDK Factory The film “The Gardener,”of Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a documentary about Baha’i shrines and religious belief, his image is reflected in a mirror held by Ririva Eona Mabi, the gardener of the title. This myth as symbolically named flower is multiplied a thousand fold in “The Gardener.” It is nothing but an intimate probe into religious belief that opens to include questions about cinema. To sep up, the film is largely ingrained within the perimeters of the astonishing Baha’i gardens in Israel. Despite bans and odds, Makhmalbaf made his odyssey into Israel to fortify the truth of the source. Holy sites for the Baha’i faith in the Israeli cities of Haifa and Acre (also known as Akko), the gardens serve as shrines to the Baha’i prophets, Báb, who’s buried on Mount Carmel in Haifa, and Bahá’u’lláh, who’s interred in Acre, are revealed in an aesthetic way. The film highlights such kaleidoscopic manifestations of belief, affirmations that have been realized in meticulous, geometric arrangements of hundreds of plants — including towering pines, bright blooms, luscious succulents and gnarled olive trees — and that are intersected by colored paths. This frills as explained give the film a growth to the point of discovery of his search It is apt to say that Makhmalbaf makes steps in the film on one such path, dressed in dark clothes and walking on a light-colored lane that’s flanked by rows of red flowers and green cypresses, virtually inter-tangled by an elegant olive tree. He’s accompanied by a second man, his son, Maysam Makhmalbaf, who wears a light-colored jacket. No doubt, it’s a chromatically striking image that draws attention to the men, and signals more significant differences that will emerge. The Garden is digitally recorded to the point of dialectical thesis on religion and faith. Truly, Makhmalbaf lissomely arguing on behalf of faith and the younger man more or less presenting the opposing view. Like the film, the discussion and discourse, logic and argument are soothingly, civilized and poetically touching, because the Baha’i continue to be persecuted in Iran. Of course it’s also inherently political. Although he uses some archival materials, Makhmalbaf pointedly steers clear of contemporary policies and politics and instead focuses on a few Baha’i believers, including Ririva Eona Mabi, a gardener from Papua New Guinea whose mellow words and manner verge on the otherworldly. There’s also a woman, an educator of some kind, who’s seen running about with her pink shawl fluttering behind her, an image that is metonymic. Who are we to judge? It’s a pressing question for Mohsen Makhmalbaf, who now lives in London, having left Iran in 2005 after the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Even with a new president, it seems unlikely that Makhmalbaf will return soon, especially judging from the response in Iran to “The Gardener,” apparently the first flick shot in Israel by an Iranian since the revolution. The pinching outrage that this visit has provoked may seem to have little to do with “The Gardener,”. There is an attempt by the present regime of Iran to separate the documentary from its maker and his history. But such illogical move would be a mistake. Makhmalbaf’s radical tolerance is itself an act of political defiance. Given this, it’s worth considering that the English word “paradise” originates in the Persian one for enclosure, pairidaeza. This is a rare discovery by Makhmalbaf. The documentary of 87 minute duration on Bahai myth is a great revelation bringing the genealogy into modern study.
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 08:53:44 +0000
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