THE STORY – Acclaimed actor-turned-documentarian Pegah Ahangarani draws on a trove of archival material to skillfully weave her personal narrative with Iranian politics over the past four decades.
THE CAST – Pegah Ahangarani
THE TEAM – Pegah Ahangarani (Director/Writer), Ehsan Abdipur & Amir Ahmadi Arian (Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 101 Minutes
Until I saw Pegah Ahangarani’s stirring new documentary, “Rehearsals for a Revolution,” I was unfamiliar with the Iranian concept of “yād,” or “memory,” in which recollections of the events of one’s life are processed and applied to the actions that we take today. For Ahangarani, a celebrated film actor for the past quarter century who has now turned to directing, those memories have manifested themselves in visuals. In her latest doc, she has collected many memories from her life – home movies and family photographs, along with historical news footage – and deftly weaves her family’s story into the larger picture of what life has become in Iran over the past four decades.
Ahangarani comes from a family of filmmakers. First, her father Jamshid, who photographed the Iranian Revolution, and her mother Manijeh, who later became one of the few women working as a director in Iran at the time. The footage shot by her parents has always been held dear by Ahangarani, who was inspired by them to become a filmmaker herself. She turns that footage into an essay of sorts, of those special people in her life whose personal experiences have touched her life and inspired them to become revolutionaries, whether on a political or a personal level.
You might expect any film set in Iran titled “Rehearsals for a Revolution” to be take on the political conflicts of the time, and Ahangarani’s doc certainly does that. But what she has achieved so skillfully here is to view them through the lens of five people whom she has chosen: in addition to Jamshid, she offers a warm tribute to her “dearest teacher” Shermin Sarraf, her uncle Rashid, her close friend and ex-boyfriend Amir, and her young daughter Lily. Each visual essay offers a different perspective on the political turmoil in the streets of Tehran and how that affected young Pegah and her family.
In assembling her documentary, Ahangarani eschews traditional talking heads to offer insight of her own via a personal narration that offers perspective on the visuals that she has chosen to tell her story. This is especially valuable in the case of her first essay, dedicated to her father. A filmmaker before the 1979 revolution, Jamshid became enamored with the revolutionary ideas of Ayatollah Khomeini and took his handheld camera to the streets to cover the successful revolt against the Shah’s regime. When peace in Iran returned, Jamshid and Manijeh wed, but two years later when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, Jamshid quickly joined the Army to defend his homeland. But after it became clear that Khomeini’s authoritarianism was just as oppressive as the Shah’s, he left the service, triggered additionally by the execution of his best friend Davoud, who has the primary star of Jamshid’s early movies.
Another early influence on Pegah was her Uncle Rashid – Jamshid’s younger brother – who was the first to open a young girl’s eyes to the need for political action in her country. She recalls her uncle’s belief that change for the better will come, but only if the people rise up and fight for that change. However, in 1999 when the regime violently raided the dormitories at Tehran University, Rashid became traumatized by the response. The ongoing crackdown following the raids disillusioned Rashid and effectively ended his career as a budding journalist. His spirit completely broken, he eventually committed suicide.
Ahangarani readily admits that the Rashid section of the film was the most difficult for her to complete, not just for the sadness in revisiting her uncle’s tragic story, but also because she had so little actual footage of Rashid. Indeed, his mother was so devastated by her son’s suicide that she destroyed almost all physical photographs of Rashid, leaving Ahangarani precious little material with which to work. Only a number of audio cassette tapes of his voice were saved, which Ahangarani uses to give him at least a presence in the film. It is a credit to her filmmaking skills that she could rely only on those tapes and her powerfully narrated script and still create a segment that’s so compelling.
Not only is Ahangarani’s creativity on full display here, but also her frankness about her own failings. This is particularly true when she looks back at her character weaknesses as a young girl. In school, she developed a strong relationship with her beloved teacher, Mrs. Serraf, so much so that Pegah was able to insinuate herself into her teacher’s family. Pegah was even invited to a Serraf family party in which photos were taken of her teacher dancing while not wearing her hajib. She gave the photos to Pegah as a keepsake, but when Pegah began showing off the photos to others, the authorities cracked down and expelled Mrs. Serraf from teaching. Knowing that she was responsible for upending her teacher’s life is a regret that Pegah still feels to this day.
Similarly, in 2009, Pegah experienced her first big romance with then-boyfriend Amir, who was active in the Green Movement, which was calling for the removal of conservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office. At Amir’s urging, Pegah tried to join Amir for a major demonstration in Tehran’s Revolution Square but was forced to run for cover when troops began firing on the protestors. Even as marchers were running for their lives, Pegah admits she failed to take notice of the historical events taking place around her, focusing instead on trying to see her new boyfriend. The Green Movement was eventually crushed, and Pegah broke up with Amir, who now happens to be one of the screenwriters credited on this film.
As Pegah achieved stardom in her mother’s movies and went on to become a director, she married and eventually emigrated to the UK where she has been raising her daughter Lily, to whom the film’s fifth and final essay is dedicated. Unlike the other chapters which serve as profiles of its subject, this last chapter is essentially a love letter to her daughter. Pegah has shaped it as if it is to be shown to Lily when she gets older so that she can know the people and the events that helped to shape her mother’s life. The segment’s footage not only explores Pegah’s past, but also her present: the challenge of a life in exile, as well as her continued love of Tehran, which is now being bombed once again in yet another war. For Pegah, her daughter stands as a symbol of hope that her new generation can live in a society with such freedom that rehearsals will no longer be necessary.
