Friend or Foe? Iranian Filmmaker Confronts Her Past with “The Queen and I”

Three months after sending Farah the inquiry, Sarvestani received a positive reply, and the doc was a go. “All of us were very surprised. She knew I had done films against [the current] regime,” said Sarvestani, referring to “Prostiution: Behind the Veil” (2004) and “Four Wives - One Man” (2007).

“I had mixed feeling going into the house of my enemy,” said Sarvestani. “I had bad feelings and guilt that a lot of people were executed during the Shah and now I meet her. But I separated it from her. For me, Farah was a woman and not the Queen. In the film I criticize her husband all the time, but it’s good for her.”

On the surface, Sarvestani seems to be breaking a major documentary taboo - she films herself and her relationship with Farah. Yet, both their histories are so intertwined, albeit from opposing ends of the political spectrum, that “The Queen and I” is that rare exception where the filmmaker enhances the overall story by being present.

“I couldn’t dettach myself from the film. Originally I wasn’t going to be in the film, but when I tried to just film her it was strange. I couldn’t tell the history without putting myself in it. And the financiers all said, ‘you need to be in the film.’”

Watching the film, Sarvestani clearly has conflicting emotions as her relationship with Farah deepens. She clearly warms to the former wife of Iran’s hated monarch, but is tormented by the atrocities of his regime. Still, Sarvestani says Farah shows genuine concern for Iran and hopes that democracy can be established there in the future.

“After everything happened [with the recent election] in Iran she called me. She’s very worried about Iran. She laughed [when I asked her] about whether she could ever go back, but she said, ‘I just hope there’s democracy in Iran and the people can decide if I ever get to go back.’” Though Sarvestani believes Farah genuinely hopes the Islamic regime will be replaced with a true democracy, she’s skeptical that Farah’s inner circle of Iranian exiles share the same sentiment, a point clearly demonstrated at one point when she accompanies Farah to the tomb of her late husband in Egypt along with some of her royalist supporters.

“Her ideas are more democratic then the people around her. People around her are still like the people of 30 years ago, but I get the feeling she is still more democratic. Her son talked a lot about democracy, he said he wanted Iran to be like Norway or Sweden, but I think it’s not correct. He has to say that because he can’t say we want a dictatorship, but then again, I don’t know. He’s the same age as me.”

Though Sarvestani has lived in Sweden for two decades, she still longs for change in her homeland, and is heartened to see young people who are the children of Iranian parents who left the country get involved with the movement for change in a country many have never visited.

“I was so touched to see the young people who can’t speak Farsi but they go out and demonstrate here and it’s so touching. My son also demonstrates. He’s never been to Iran. I think Iranians really need the support from around the world. If I didn’t have children now, I’d go to Iran and demonstrate. I’d like to live there again. But I know if I went, I’d get arrested.”

7th Art Releasing will open “The Queen and I” at the newly renovated Downtown Independent Theater in Los Angeles on Friday, July 17. Following the 7:30pm screening Friday, there will be a panel discussion with two experts on Iran as well as the filmmakers from “Liberation,” the short film, which precedes “The Queen and I.”

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Which weekend opener is sure to get your $12 for an hour-and-a-half of delight in the dark?

	(500) Days of Summer
	A Woman in Berlin
	Death in Love
	Off Jackson Avenue
	The Queen and I
	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
	Somers Town

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