This is a cross post from Potkin’s blog whose name is too long to reproduce here
Hanna Makhmalbaf is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the famous Iranian film director and an ardent revolutionary in his youth. So much so that during the Shah’s rule, by the time Mohsen Makhmalbaf was 15, he had formed his own Islamic militia group and by the age of 17 he was shot and arrested while trying to disarm a policeman.
Neither Mohsen Makhmalbaf nor his daughter Hanna now support what is going on in Iran. In fact they both now back the Green Movement and desire a democratic change in Iran like most Iranians do. Having had the experience of living in a religious state, Hanna hopes her experience will alert the people of Lebanon ahead of Ahmadinejad’s imminent visit to Lebanon. Her address to the people of Lebanon comes after the Lebanese authorities decided to stop the showing of her award winning film, Green Days, ahead of Ahmadinejad’s visit, during the Beirut International Film Festival, so as not to upset the Iranian dictator who has promised a half billion Dollar loan to Lebanon.
“I was happy to think that by watching the film Green Days, you will see a realistic tale of Iran’s elections. A green election which the Iranian regime turned into blood red after they killed tens and arrested thousands.
News reached me that some of the officials in the art of politics and expediency in your country, under the excuse of not upsetting Ahmadinejad before he enters Lebanon, have prevented the showing of Green Days in the Beirut Film Festival.
Cinema lovers of Lebanon,
I wish I could come to each one of your houses with that movie so we could watch together the moment Nedas died. Then my broken heart would ask your tearful eyes, my dear Lebanese, how could he who extinguished the Nedas of his own land not extinguish your Nedas of Lebanon?
Cinema Lovers of Lebanon,
Ahmadinejad stole our votes yesterday and will steal your trust today. His intention is not to help you, just as his intention is not to serve Iran. His firebrand cries of justice to Iranians has brought nothing but poverty, imprisonment and torture under the name of God and his rabble rousing against Israel is nothing but a public deception of the Islamic world and will bring nothing for your land other than war. He uses your land as a frontline trench of his imaginary war. His insignificant loan is like the blood money for the great spirit of the youth of your country.
Ahmadinejad in my land is the symbol of censorship. Look how he brings censorship to your country before even arriving there.
We Iranians have learned to turn our homes into a festival to combat censorship, if you too turn your homes into a film festival and show the movie of Green Days to the mourning mothers of Lebanon and say that the mourning mothers of Iran say to each other:
Ahmadinejad and Khamaenii begin with the name of God but only end in the interests of Satan”
