The Iran Job

It is an amazing movie. An American basketball player arrives in Iran with misconceptions and returns to the United States with a transformed image.

This movie isn't slick enough to win any big awards, but what the filmmakers accomplished is incredible. It's the story of Kevin, a college basketball star from the US Virgin Islands whose career as a journeyman international basketball player takes him to one of the least likely places for an American to end up: Iran. Despite his concerns about the country, he agrees to be brought in as a ringer for an upstart team. He needs to justify the substantial investment the team made in him by leading them to the playoffs, but in order to do so, Kevin will need to do more for the team than simply being its best player.

This story serves as the substrate for a fascinating on-the-ground view of Iranian society, behind the walls created by feuding governments. You see that despite living under an authoritarian regime, the real Iranian people have desires and dreams not unlike their Western counterparts. You see much about their society that is admirable, even as people struggle against the constraints of tradition and an authoritarian government.

One can't help feeling that the world would be a much more peaceful place if ordinary people simply got to know one another. Any movie that can produce such a feeling is worth a watch.

I think basketball is a beautiful and yet complicated game. Iran, at least to my western eyes, is an even more beautiful and infinitely more complicated country. This film is a very simple and sweet glimpse and people who cross over the borders surrounding basketball and Iran.

Just as Kevin Sheppard is not a monumental spokesman for all of the United States, the three sisters cannot capture the thousands of years of Iran/Persian in the past, nor the millions of people living there today.

But the human interest stories in this film are what draw us in on a personal level, Obama's inauguration and the election of Ahmadinejad over Moussavi take place while Kevin joins the Shiraz team in this film. I'm not sure how many "critics" here had they been filmed during those two events would have eloquently captured the moment. Intead I found the dinner when Kevin goes to the house of the Father of the three sisters to be more captivating.

That man, who says nothing on camera during the film, to me was the most fascinating character. Raising three strong women, balancing his belief in them and his faith in Islam, what a story must lie beneath the few moments we spend with them all. Kevin's gesture to politely pass on the head of the table setting at the dinner table was a nice moment of individual ambassador work. But even that scene is tinged with some sadness and misunderstanding as the Mother recaps her surprise that her guests did not stay for hours of fruit, nuts and conversation after the meal.

This film felt like meeting some people in fortuitous circumstances, maybe on a vacation retreat, or in the US at jury duty, where you get a glimpse of meaningful private moments in a mostly public setting. I think I'll wonder about the people on this film here, as I would for such "strangers" I encounter who temporarily break past the estrangement.

Two thoughts based on other comments I've read here. One, the sister Elaheh I don't think had a crush on Kevin so much as she did on the camera. Like many a good actress, her desired vocation, she knew the most important leading man for her is the lens. That being said, the lead-in to a Monday meeting with a potential suitor is set up and then dispatched with nary a follow-up, likely her wishful beau may have been rightfully jealous of the camera wanting to hold his intended in its gaze even while he did the same. Who knows? Also I've seen questions about Zoran, the seven footer from Serbia who does seem a veritable gentle giant. Effectively a migrant worker, away from his own family and young son, apparently in his 30's and it is alluded to his having been through the worst of the war in his homeland. It's almost as if he knows that the story of Kevin, and the sisters and their countries would not fit into this film, much less his own.

The simple truth of this film, that people interacting with each other in person, even with a disparity of background and a possible lack of communication somehow figure out their overwhelming similarities.

It is a different take on life in Iran. Kevin Sheppard is a college basketball star turned basketball world traveler as he goes from country to country paid to play basketball. He is not good enough to turn pro but decent enough to play for international leagues. I enjoyed seeing the contrast between the official "America is evil" take that the Iranian government pushes with the kind, warm way that Kevin Sheppard is treated by the Iranian citizens. He meets some pretty Iranian women one of whom develops a crush on him and brings him home to eat with her family. He is oblivious to her interest because he has a girl friend back home. Sweet funny movie with a touch of politics thrown in for good measure.

A great unknown among westerners is Iran. Yes, their government and western governments are at odds. But what I am talking about is the country--not the government. What is it like? What are the people like? Well, I cannot answer that first-hand (though I'd like to go there to visit one day), I do know that by glimpsing at the country through films that it isn't really all that different from us. The people, like any people, have similar hopes, dreams and humanity-- something you miss when you watch the news on TV. Try watching some of Majid Majidi's great films like "Children of Heaven" or "The Color of Paradise" and you'll see this humanity.

In the case of "The Iran Job", however, you have a documentary--not a staged film--in order to get a glimpse at life in Iran. Through the course of the film, you travel with Kevin Sheppard as he leaves the familiarity of life in St. Croix (the US Virgin Islands) and moves to Iran to play for one of their teams. Surprisingly, he is NOT treated like an outcast even though the official government position is clearly anti-American. I was shocked how much he bonded with the team and vice-versa and the film gives you glimpses into the way young women are dealing with a harsh Muslim climate as well as the country as it nearly plunged into civil war following their hotly contested election.

All in all, a very well made film that works on many levels (heck, I even liked the rapping in Farsi that is much of the soundtrack). It helps that you genuinely like Sheppard and his teammates but it also gives a rare chance to see folks as folks--and it's a real treat that, unfortunately, too few people will end up seeing.