The mass waves of violent immigration towards Europe that have taken place during the last years, have made a lot of people, particularly in the West, realize that this is not exactly a new phenomenon. In 1979, after the Soviet attack on Afghanistan, millions of Afghans had to leave their country, and a lot of them went to Iran. Today, after 4 decades of life in Iran, the second and third generations have been born. Those people have never seen their home country, nor have they had the opportunity to live there. Moreover, they are not considered as citizens in Iran, perpetually living in-between, as the small sequences interspersed throughout Soraya Akhlaqi‘s documentary, with a woman moving in circles with a suitcase in her hands, eloquently highlight.
“Roots in the Wind” is screening at Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinema
Soraya Akhlaqi, who has experienced the exact same situation, having been born in 1993 in Iran by Afghan parents, is perhaps the ideal person to highlight the impossible situation these people face. Through interviews with a number of people experiencing the same problems, she showcases the discriminatory behaviors they have to deal with, legally, socially, and in terms of work, which has essentially excluded them socially and not allowed them to progress in a country they have been living in for decades.
The differing demographic of the people interviewed, shed light to the problem in all its glory. Young people are completely unsure about their future and if they can actually have one in this country. A middle-aged man is utterly fed up with his situation, even stating, at some point, that he would prefer to have been aborted before he was born. Even more dramatic is the situation of a father whose kid is mentally handicapped, and is not able to receive help from any kind of institution. Through all the people talking, Akhlaqi presents a situation that would have been completely ridiculous, if it was not completely dramatic.
At the same time, and in order to avoid the repetition of the ‘talking heads’ approach, she has also included a number of moments of dramatization throughout the movie, which, apart from the aforementioned suitcase ones, also include Marina Gulbahari dancing or moving around a small room. These sequences both add an artistic value to the whole drama here, and provide a welcome relief for the interviews, which also stresses Mehran Valizadeh’s accomplished job in the editing. Essentially, the only issue I found watching the 26-minute movie in the cinema, is that the subtitles’ font is too large, occasionally obstructing the images.
Apart from that, however, Akhlaqi has managed to present an issue as thoroughly as possible, and with a particular artfulness that make “Roots in the Wind” as important as it is easy to watch.
