HEIRAN the Movie. A STARK look at a LOVE LOST in IRAN.

PRESS PREVIEW

How stark can it be when, during the rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, 3 million Afghans, mostly illegals, flooded into Iran, causing enormous problems for the Iranian society to accept them?

In director SHALIZEH AREFPOUR’s maiden effort at helming this feature film “HEIRAN“, she takes us on an eye-opening journey exploring the plight of the Afghan immigrants, whose rights are crushed along with the rights of the Iranian women.

It’s life itself unfolding before our eyes and it’s kinda sad, you know?

SHALIZEH AREFPOUR assures us that love transcends all boundaries, creeds and religions.

She draws a fine line between reality and art showcasing fragile bonds tenuously holding individuals, families and religions together.

For real?

We watch with sympathy when it is apparent that the universe that she has created is a troubled one and is threatening to swallow everything along with it.

You take this headstrong and stubborn 17 year-old Iranian girl, a college student.

A brilliant student, she has everything going for her until …

she meets this strapping young Afghan migrant worker on a bus.

They have the hots for each other.

They fall in love … at a wrong time, in a wrong country.

Ignoring parental objection, she flees to Tehran, marries him and bears him a child.

Her discovery that life is not a bed of roses and love is not just about fresh air throws her immediately into premature adulthood.

The issues of love and family ties will surely strike an emotional chord in us.

They always do.

But we are talking here about hopes lost, renewed and then dashed.

This is one gem of a movie from IRAN, a complicated family drama steep in simplicity in the “treatment” when it comes to a fine director’s touch.

A pitch-perfect ensemble of professional Iranian actors lends credence to the story.

Baran Kosari (female lead), Mehrdad Sedighian (Heiran) and Khosro Shakibaei (grandpa) put on compassionate performances as they chronicle the desperate journey of love and survival across troubled Iran.

You don’t need a super duper budget and a great cast to make you sit on the edge of your seat and take stock of how lucky we all are, and that we tend to take a lot of things in life for granted.

HEIRAN is one compelling, unforgettably moving film.

With excellent true-to-life acting and a sincere script, it makes for exceptionally, intelligent entertainment.

Truth piques our minds, shall we say?

HEIRAN is didactic in approach, and at times we tend to confront our own pain and guilt hoping for a healing process,

Somewhere along the line, through certain poignant moments depicted in the film, I cannot help but feel that there’s a touch of YASMIN AHMAD, the late Malaysian director in the treatment.

GO WATCH IT!

2010. THE WAY WE ARE NOW. THIS WORLD THAT SHOULDN'T BE.

DARN IT ….

A BRAND NEW YEAR IS HERE!

So soon?

What’s the hell am I thinking?

Reflecting on 2009, the year that was …..

those roller coasting events that beastily threw me up in the air precariously

and in delirium, brought me down firmly on my own two feet.

Did I look at truth the way I should?

Guess not.

LIFE IS BRUTAL and REALITY BITES, right?

Oh yeah …..

We all drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much and pray too seldom.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life.

We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.

We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul.

We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait.

We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

YES, WE ARE IN DEEP SHIT.

IS THIS WHAT A REAL LIFE IS ALL ABOUT?

There’s a saving grace though.

RE-INVENT OURSELVES.

Just like an old home that needs a new coat of paint, each and everyone of us needs a new “interior”, from time to time.

Check this out.

Make this our new year resolution, chum.

LIGHT UP SOMEONE'S LIFE THIS CHRISTMAS.

Ahhhh .....

CHRISTMAS is rolling just round the corner.

Are you madly scrambling for your last-minute festive shopping?

Trudging over the mall, you cannot help but hear the soft, joyous playing of Christmas carols over the public intercom that's enhancing the festive ambience.

CHRISTMAS.

'Tis a season to be MERRY.

Christmas comes but once a year, and when it comes, it brings good cheer.

Frenetic gift exhanges, decorating Christmas trees, cosy familiness, buy, buy, buy till you drop dead.

It's all about spending money, the more money we got, the MORE we spend.

Money is power in this season of COMMERCIALISM.

And it's always MONEY that maketh the world goes round.

Whilst we merry-make this season, let's spare a kind thought for the myriad of homeless people in third world countries who are hungry and destitute.

Life is never equal.

It can never be.

Do we count our blessings?

Perhaps not.

Have we ever experienced what it's like to be impoverished?

So that steak tasted awful and you're going to toss it to the dog?

Bet there're countless hungry kidos out there in the cold who would give an arm and leg to savor edible scraps ...

Remember that song FOOD, GLORIOUS FOOD sung by OLIVER TWIST?

Food, glorious food!

What wouldn't we give for

That extra bit more --

That's all that we live for

Why should we be fated to

Do nothing but brood

On food,

Magical food,

Wonderful food,

Marvellous food,

Fabulous food,

Beautiful food,

GLORIOUS FOOD.

AREN'T WE ALL LUCKY?

When we have, we don't think.

We tend to take good things for granted.

If you have clean water to drink, a warm bed to sleep in, and enough food to eat on a regular basis, then you're more fortunate than a majority of the people in the world.

If you have access to transportation, education, and proper medical care, then consider yourself wealthy beyond measure.

If you find that you have a little something extra left over at the end of each month, then please consider helping someone in a third world country.

There are plenty of organizations out there willing to help these people, but they can't do it alone.

Sigh .....

Didn't I read somewhere that

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted?

THIS NEW YEAR, WILL YOU BE STARVING YOURSELF TO A PERFECT FIGURE? LIFE CAN BE SUCH A PARADOX.

My friend,

Do sit back and think "third world".

Then you can really envisage thousands of impoverished people literally dying of starvation.

Think "modern times" and you get a totally different picture.

Most everyone who aspire to look "gorgeous" are going on quickie, quackie yo-yo diets to stave off the unwanted pounds.

LIFE can be such a PARADOX.

We've food, glorious food spread across our tables, fine clothes over our bodies to keep us warm, a steadfast roof over our heads, no less.

Yet we're still mooning and moaning.

To be thin is to be beautiful, right?

Yes, if you want your life to hang on a limbo.

Do we spare a thought for the millions out there who ain't just as lucky, deprived of edible food?

Probably not, because we often take things for granted and are too busy indulging in our self-interests.

Take these GRIM facts:

• In the Asian, African and Latin American countries, over 500 million people are living in absolute poverty.

• Annually, an estimate of 15 million children will die of hunger

• For the price of one missile, a school full of hungry children can eat lunch every day for 5 years.

• One-third of the world is well-fed, one-third is under-fed one-third is starving.

  We are living in a world of paradoxes. Things are seldom as they appear. We witness events or encounter evidence that doesn't make sense, or that seems contradictory, ugly or painful. Think fit and don't toy with health. COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS TODAY.. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

"LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!" Part TWO. REEL or REAL? THERE'S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS.

ASIAN CINEMA 2

So there’s no show business like show business.

Oh yeah?

There’s glitz, there’s sleaze, there’s fan adulation, a true blue fusion.

But for how long?

As good as it lasts, it’s a COLOURFUL WORLD out there, for sure.

Plus there’s MONEY aplenty when you make it to the top.

And what if you cannot?

Are you content with playing SECOND FIDDLE in an insignificant role when you know the leading actor has lesser qualities than you have?

Such a shame, really.

Who says that the entertainment industry is fair?

As in every industry, FAVORITISM is prevalent,

It’s all about CHEMISTRY,

It’s either you like that particular artiste or not,

Producers, Management + Paparazzi can be subjective, not impartial -

The pen is mightier than the sword,

The Paparazzi can either build you or crush you,

So tread the line carefully,

Better earn a friend than make a foe, right?

Welcome to a plastic world of make-believe where falsitudes, truths and half-truths prevail.

You may have to rub shoulders, kiss ass.

No? Then you are lucky.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world in your own reality show.

You get thrown into a whirlpool of bitchy and jealous people trying to stay afloat, where the fittest survivor survives.

SMILES are cheap in the Entertainment arena.

Check this one out.

Grab a MENTOR along the way.

You’ll need one with loads of connections to bestow you a head start to put you up on that pedestal you crave.

Got the looks? Then half the job is done.

But looks aren’t everything, my friend.

There must be at least some raw talent in your bones, please.

You’ll also need oodles of luck, like being at the right place at the right time, lots of happy smiles, diligence, humility and the right attitude.

But please, do not preen with your nose up in the air even if you are so gorgeously stunning,

A stuck-up attitude is so cool?

Unless you think you making the million bucks like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie,

Are you?

Just remember this – every other day there’s another beautiful hopeful toeing the line, waiting to be discovered.

Pride comes before a fall, and producers do remember your every move.

And do not hog or exaggerate about your credentials as some devious actors do for attention grabbing, because in the end, competent producers can sieve through it all.

Producers connect with one another worldwide, so there!

This is ASIA, you’d really need to achieve a couple of noteworthy merits by the time you hit 30, so you have to start early, in your early 20s.

Asian entertainment places their bet on youth.

So stay as young as you can with lots of exercise, diets and creams.

It sometimes appears that so many REEL LIVES end in poverty, suicides or obscurity,

SHOW BUSINESS IS A STARK BUSINESS

Today when you are famous, you are up and preening,

Tomorrow when you are aged and being eclipsed by a bright young star

You have fallen from your pedastal

You have come to face this brute called REALITY …..

You begin to question your sunshine FRIENDS and FANS.

REALITY BITES HARD, man.

Nothing lasts forever,

Even FAME,

And sooner or later, all good things will come to pass,

What are you going to do then?

Swim with the sharks?

Why not?

Hey, this is the digital age now.

You can start a personal BLOG to propagate your achievements,

Or you can create your own brand and hawk your wares on the internet

when you are no longer celebrated,

There are always young,mindless, unquestioning fans in cyberspace who are bored to tears for no apparent reasons

and are easily incited by the slightest ripple,

The list goes on:

Like they say:

NO VENTURE, NO GAIN.

(crestfallen face here).

So please put your best foot forward.

For all you know, FAME can just be around the corner.

For those whose acting careers are sagging -

There may be the chance of a second wind,

Nobody can tell …..

So good luck!