Der Auftrag

Parviz Sayyad, a popular comic director in Iran before the revolution, had to leave his homeland and wound up in America with no funds to pursue his cinematic art. Somehow he scraped together the shoestring to get this one filmed, fortunately. It's a brilliant, compelling examination of what it means to follow your ideals, after you find out that everything you thought was wrong.

A young Iranian arrives in New York. He is a quiet, serious, pious Muslim. His orders: find the ex-SAVAK officer and kill him. While trailing the ex-SAVAK officer in New York's subway, he accidentally meets him face to face while helping him escape muggers. From his pocket falls the Qur'an with Persian translation. The ex-SAVAK officer picks it up and sees the Persian writing. Hey! You're from Iran too, what a coincidence, we must become friends! They do, in fact, become friends. The pious young Muslim assassin finds out that the ex-SAVAK officer is a nice guy, not a bad guy after all. He has two cute kids, and they love their new uncle from Iran (the assassin). How he can find it in his heart to kill this nice guy? Meanwhile he makes ablution and prays in his cockroachy apartment. The assassination commander tries to call him on the phone, but he does not answer so as not to interrupt his prayer. The assassination commander comes to see him, saying "Why don't you answer the phone? Praying? Oh, you are so pious" -- while he guzzles beer! So the young assassin faces a dilemma: he wanted to serve Islam, but he is forced to confront the question of where is real Islam -- in the revolution? Or in his heart? Then he is not sure what he should really do. The tragic ending is wrenching indeed.

This movie is made with heart and sympathy, about discovering moral ambiguity in one's own soul. An excellent view of the spiritual problems with the Iranian revolution made by an expatriate with no resources but his wit and his heart. If you ever get a chance to see it, don't miss it.

My review was written in March 1983 at New Directors/New Films series, screened in Midtown Manhattan.

Filmed in New York City last year by expatriate Iranian filmmaker Parviz Sayyad, "The Mission" is a sugar-coated political tract in the form of a comedy-thriller about a hit man who ends up befriending his likable target. With a bloated running time about twice as long as the material demands, Farsi-language entry is destined for a limited audience.

Sayyad's threadbare plot peg is to cast himself as the hale and hearty ex-army colonel now working as a night shift janitor in Gotham, who quickly wins over the friendship of Teheran agent (Hooshang Touzie) sent to kill him bby local contact known as His Eminence (Mohammad B. Ghaffari). The hit is actually a substitute for Touzie's original mission, which was nullified when a tv news report indicates his previous target has been assassinated in Washington, D. C. With the colonel's cute kids who speak English (his wife is stuck back in Teheran due to emigration restrictions) plus their feisty young aunt (Mary Apick) as romantic sparring interest, the sullen agent played by Touzie becomes part of the family group and eventually uses the rationalization that Eminence has possibly chosen the colonel as a target for personal reasons rather than a Teheran-ordered cause as his excuse for not completing the mission. Film's trick ending relies upon equal parts of off-screen "surprise" twists and the sentimental effects.

Between tedious dialectic discussions in which Sayyad and Apick are the filmmaker's mouthpieces for tolerance and a variety of platitudes, film alternates between dull "thriller" footage and cornball situation comedy. Sayyad gives the only interesting performance, as lead Touzie presents a taciturn facade that doesn't jibe with his supposed crisis of conscience. Apick is an initially appealing young actress, but soon becomes a political cartoon berating "religious zealot" Touzie for the faults of the Khomeini regime.

Film's 35mm blowup from 16mm lensing is okay (only night footage is grainy), but picture lacks style. Color is drab and the absence of a musical score adds to film's ponderous effect.