This is the second Iranian feature film that I found employing facets of surrealism--the first being my all time favourite Iranian film: Mohsen Amir Youseffi's "Bitter Dreams" (2004). In "Iran is My Land," the protagonist is a young man trying to publish his thesis on the works of five eminent centuries-old Farsi poets--namely, Hafez, Ferdowsi, Rumi, Omar Khayyam, and Saadi. To publish it, he has to get the approval of the present day Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance--an attempt which proves to be a leaf out of Franz Kafka's or Joseph Heller's novels. In the film, the five medieval poets as guiding angels) constantly provide advise out of their written works to the protoganist to get past the red tape. The debates between the young writer and the difficult bureaucrat are punctuated by visuals of trees with pages of poetry replacing leaves and of widows being chosen by villagers to become "canal brides'' to sit at the mouth of dry canals to make water flow again. When the water does flow out, with it comes books of poetry and musical instruments! The film also satirizes the mention of women and wine in the poetry of the five poets, set off against the present day intolerant views on those very subjects in Iran. The performance of the seemingly benevolent Kafkaesque bureaucrat (superbly played by Saeed Poursamimi) is a notable part of this film.
