MovieChat Forums > Not Without My Daughter (1991) Discussion > Get it through your heads people! The re...

Get it through your heads people! The real version

posted 19 years ago by njg34
67 replies | jump to latest

I'm afraid no one is qualified to say anything about the truth of this film unless they have been to Iran and can attest to whether this film portrays reality about iranians and iran

NOT THE THEOCRATIC EVIL ISLAMIC REGIME
NOT FUNDAMENTALISTS WHO HURT THEIR WIVES

But ordinary Iranians and the country Iran. This film is so riddled with inaccuracies and mis-representations for anyone who has travelled to Iran that it is uncanny.

eg

1) Tehran does not have sheep roaming its streets. Its a sprawling ugly metropolis, with smog clogging up its streets, and it hasn't had sheep since about 1890. Why the hell the filmmakers have chosen a street in rural Israel to film this movie, and use this village to represent Tehran is beyond all reasonable cognition. Oh no its not, its because they wanted people to think Iran is a backward country full of uncultured peasants living in mud houses.

2) Almost no one speaks actual Farsi in this film. So even the simplest accuracy required in the film is missing.

3) Iranians are universally known to be warm to foreigners. It comes as part of a rich historic culture combined with the fact that they know hey are perceived to be West-haters (everyone wants them to be shown as this, including their own government and the Western governments), and they want to change that. Americans who know Iranians know that 99% of Iranians are shockingly warm to Americans. There is no country in the world which loves America and its ideals more than Iran, and this film is exactly the kind of propaganda which would have you feel otherwise. What everyone (Iran's government, US government etc...) wants you to believe, basically.

4) Some really strange inventions in the film and the book. Like when Moody told his wife something about Iranians having to take showers after intercourse. WHAT THE HELL? If you're going to make something up, at least make it a bit less laughable.

5) Yes Iranians have to wear scarves and manteaus which DOES INFRINGE ON THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS, I AGREE. And they are treated by the government/officials as second class in many many situations. But one major point about Iranian culture actually REVERSED in this film is that Iranian women are the boss of the household. When it comes to household issues the woman is usually dominant in Iranian culture, and Iranian women are much stronger and empowered than in most other countries in the world. You have to draw a line between the government and the population, people!

6) Why are almost all Iranians in this film brimming with animosity and anger? I just don't get it. Take it from me, Iranians are warm and loving, ESPECIALLY to FOREIGNERS!

One question for anyone who liked this film. How come looking at the credits there is not a single Iranian in the main cast, when there are SO MANY IRANIAN EXPATRIATES WHO ARE AGAINST THE ISLAMIC REGIME IN IRAN? Thats right, because they perceived this film to be just purely racist, with no political leniencies. Just racist.

So thank you to this film for uniting all Iranians of all political and religious idealogies: Pro-Islamic, anti-Islamic, pro-Shah, anti-Shah, Communist, capitalist, socialist, national socialist, muslim, jewish, christian, zoroastrian, bahai. All religious and political divisions of Iranians can be united by the racism that this film portrays against them.

Its the Nazi propaganda film of the modern age.

Oh yeah one more thing, this film IS racist! It DOESN'T overtly insult or mock Iranians. That would be OK for me because it would be obvious for anyone watching. No, the reason why it has some of you duped into thinking its not racist is because you just DON'T KNOW! All its racism is in the form of insinuations and subtle propaganda which feeds negative stereotypes. That is the worse form of racism because ordinary "normal-minded" people fall for it. And that is/was the basis of the aforementioned nazi propaganda and how it eventually led to the persecution of Jews by an entire country under the Nazi Holocaust. DONT LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU!

[–] onandonandon92 14 years ago

4) Some really strange inventions in the film and the book. Like when Moody told his wife something about Iranians having to take showers after intercourse. WHAT THE HELL? If you're going to make something up, at least make it a bit less laughable.

I'm a Muslim, and what he said here is true. If you have sex, you take a shower after. YOu can't pray without taking shower after sex. What WAS racist was the way they implied that Persian people don't take showers or something UNLESS they have sex. But don't try and say this isn't true. Eww... who wouldn't take a shower after doing it anyway? That's kind of disgusting

EDIT:

Also want to say what this poster said about Iranian people being hospitable is very true. Iranian people are some of the most liberal, brightest, and free thinking people I have met. Although those are all from the younger generation that i'm speaking of.

My name is Khan... and I am not a terrorist!!!

[–] GSHARON710 12 years ago

Thank you!

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] drxcreatures 10 years ago

Will you folks get over the sheep already? That's stupid!

http://www.cgonzales.net & http://www.drxcreatures.com

[–] usherman 10 years ago

People like this OP are probably the reason this film isn't rated higher. Muslim trolls coming on IMDB and rating it a "1". Everyone has pointed out to you that you are mistaken about your'e point #3 and the film clearly shows that some Iranian nationals actually like the USA. It's that religion of yours that brings on the hatred.

[–] I_Like_Turtle_s 9 years ago

People like this OP are probably the reason this film isn't rated higher.

does that explain the pathetic rating on rottentomatoes too?

[–] KlutzyGirl 8 years ago

Well, compared to the book the film is not that good. The book is extraordinary! I can't recommend it highly enough; I stayed awake many nights reading it, I could not put it down. But a movie that gives the same detail would have to be many hours long. I think the filmmakers did the best they could. BTW, around the same time the book came out a woman in my American town had her young children stolen by her middle eastern husband. He took them to his country (I think Iran but I can't remember), and despite winning custody in US court she never got them back. NWMD is not rumor, fiction, or racism; it is one woman's true experience. Middle eastern countries, especially those with oil supplies, have many reasons to hate the US, an interventionist country that wants to control the world under the guise of democracy but really for money and power. Iran is a very old culture that has made many contributions to civilization. But Iran under Khomeini's rule was a horrible place! Comparing him to Hitler is an overstatement but they were in the same vein.

[–] kimmie_baever 8 years ago

If you're intelligent you'd read the book. She states over and over again that most of the people she met in Iran was good people who kept a low profile due to the regime and it's her husbands family who's *beep* up.

[–] Stenian 8 years ago

1. Typical Hollywood depiction of a societies outside the US, which are always shown as retrograded, derelict and uncivilized. Taken 2's depiction of Turkey was the worst offender.

2. What is "actual Farsi"? What were Moody's family speaking? Anyway, speaking of the language, those who played the 'Iranian smugglers' were speaking Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, more specifically, the Lishanid Noshan dialect, which is spoken by Jewish Assyrians, who use the Hebrew script (rather than Syriac). For starters, Aramaic and Farsi are from two different language families (Farsi is Indo-European, alongside English, Spanish, Russian, German, etc and Aramaic is Semitic, like Arabic). Not sure why Aramaic-speaking people portrayed Persians and, on top of that, they spoke Aramaic? Like, seriously?  

3. True. This film portrays Iranians as cold-hearted, aloof & unsympathetic monsters. I know that the Iranian government is primitive, but most of Iranians are pretty much normal day-to-day folks.

4. Some Muslims may practice this tradition. So I can't have a say on this.

5. To be fair, Moody's mother seemed to be very dominant and controlling. She kinda ruled the household.

6. I know. They were portrayed as obnoxious and describable monsters. With that being said, their government is primitive and that is because of Islam. I hope Iran becomes a democracy and ditches Islam.

[–] Itsmedrooms2 8 years ago

It's difficult to ditch Islam because leaving the faith is a crime punishable by death.

[–] Intothenightalone 8 years ago

I'll say this, THIS IS A MOVIE that is depicting not just a reality, but AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE.

If they shot it to look pretty you might say "oh that's not such a bad place", but her inner turmoil had to be presented in a VISUAL WAY as guess what? Film is an VISUAL ART-FORM. That's why they use color-grading in movies to make things look dark, or eerie, etc.

As for the era, it was just after a revolution. People would be roaming the streets with machine guns. They were imposing a strict Islamic lifestyle upon a population who had lived as a modern, advanced Middle Eastern country for a few decades.

Regarding being nice to foreigners, DID YOU MISS ALL THE PEOPLE WHO TRIED TO HELP HER AND RISKED THEIR OWN LIVES? Seems pretty hospitable and non-hateful to me!

Even the family had their own nice moments, such as celebrating Christmas for her and her daughter.

I didn't interpret the movie as being a hatchet job against Iran or Islam, more a tale of cultures where wives are seen as property of a husband, taking place against the backdrop of a Islamic regime.

[–] kerchable 8 years ago

Well said...very well said. Bravo and cheers to you, you totally got the point.

what ails most madmen is realitys grasp or escape, a paralysis of analysis

[–] julierom 8 years ago

Read Mahtob's book. That should erase all doubt that everything she and her mother went through is true!