Word: kazem
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...network one might point to the very real possibility that many zealous Americans might have been outraged by a program that concerned itself with the plight of one Iranian much to the exclusion of the American hostages, but the film's singular focus, its preoccupation with the trials of Kazem Ala, is its very strength. Unwilling to provide a simple reiteration of the revolution and the seizure of the American embassy, the directors instead trace further back in time to concentrate on one individual and the circumstance leading up to his torture, circumstances that inspired the Iranian people to overrun...
...TRIO OF DIRECTORS first became aware of Kazem's story in April. 1980, when they saw him interviewed on a television talk show. In the short interview, a small portion of which appears at the opening of the film. Kazem Ala told of the tortures he had both witnessed and experienced. At one point, though visibly shaken and upset, he continued o recount horrors he had seen (among them a story about a mother forced to watch while her infant son had his throat cut), explaining that "I have a duty to say this." And in Kazem Ala's confession...
...brought about the seizure of the embassy was ever as straightforward and instructive as this short documentary. Those Americans (and there seem to be many) still confused about the explanation for the frenzy that swept the streets of Teheran in November, 1979, need look no further than Resident Exile, Kazem Ala and thousands of other Iranian students like him were systematically arrested and tortured for expressing their opposition to the Shah's regime--a regime that the United States helped set up in 1953 and then continued to support militarily and economically for over two decades, even though the Shah...
...their attempt to present both a personal and social perspective on the situation in Iran, the directors follow Kazem around Houston, using their camera carefully and unobtrusively, often relying on glaring juxtapositions. Whenever Kazem's wife appears in a scene, as she does for instance, in a sequence where Kazem sits on the beach and points to his scarred feet and ankles, the camera constantly shifts, focusing first on the Iranian's dark, weathered face and then on her plum, ivory face. The contrast is sharp and suggestive: for while Kazem describes, with grim experience painted on his face...
...focusing on the reality of Kazem's torture, the team of Anthony. McElwee and Negroponte doesn't simply present scene after scene of tearful recollections. Instead, the directors rely on a rather commonplace scene in a dentist's office to evoke some of the horror of Kazem's persecution at the hands of the Shah's secret police. While Kazem lies prostrate in a dentist chair (a scene itself reminiscent of Marathon Man), the camera focuses on the dentist as he lights a match and uses it to sterilize a dental implement. The camera lingers on the match, and suddenly...