One thousand, three hundred, and thirty years ago at Karbala in present-day Iraq, Iman Husayn ibn Ali, a grandson of the prophet of Islam, led a small, traveling group of 72 persons. This group included children, women, and elderly persons, as well as a small number of horsemen and infantrymen dedicated to Husayn. They confronted an enemy force of about 40,000 trained soldiers. Husayn offered his men the opportunity to desert him in the cover of night rather than face certain death. None of the men left Husayn.
Husayn and his men challenged the enemy to single combat, and each defeated many. The enemy, however, prevented Husayn and his group from getting water. Husayn’s comrade Abbas ibn Ali crossed through the enemy force and gathered some water. But he was killed as he struggled to bring the water back to Husayn’s group. In the mass combat that followed, Husayn and his men penetrated to the elite core of the enemy force and dispersed it. But the vastly greater enemy numbers eventually overcame Husayn and his warriors. Husayn was beheaded and dismembered. Some of the children in his band were killed, and women, taken captive.
Abbas Kiarostami’s Ta’ziyeh / The Spectators presented this story, the Mourning of Muharram, in a present-day Iranian village, in the Sackler Gallery, this weekend. A color video of the ritual dramatization was flanked by two larger screens showing monochrome videos of spectators. The spectators sat on cushions in front of the screens in a narrow room specially prepared in the Sackler. Husayn’s group was dressed in green, and the enemy, in red. Husayn circled on a white stallion and sang plangently. The women, who sat on the upper level of the theater, looked formal and elegant in their black hajibs. The women’s hajibs were subtly individualized, and the women manipulated them expressively. The men, who sat on the lower level of the theater, wore a motley, unattractive assortment of clothes, including Adidas sports jackets, poorly fitting shirts, and ugly sweaters. In the dramatization of the slaughter of a child, fake blood drenched the child’s white cloak of captivity. Even spectators who watched the middle, colored screen with detachment or ethnographic curiosity felt the deep, authentic sorrow of the monochrome spectators on the left and on the right.
The event provided a profound meditation on being a spectator and on the cinema effect. Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film, Shirin (2008), shows the twelfth-century Persian love story of Sassanian king Khosrow and Armenian princess Shirin through the faces of 112 Iranian actresses as they apparently watch a film of it. Human beings, male and female, are unique, wonderful, and mysterious media.
Abbas Kiarostami’s Ta’ziyeh / The Spectators (Iran, 2003, 80 minute video) was presented in five showings at the Sackler Gallery on January 24-25, 2010. Kiarostami’s Shirin will be shown in the Freer Gallery’s Myer Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 29, and Sunday, Jan. 31.
Can I use these images in my research paper about Kiarstami? is it possible to have a high-resolution version of them to use if you have the copyright?
I myself took these photos at the performance. I personally have do not object to you using these images in your research paper on Kiarstami. I have used these images in accordance with my understanding of fair use provisions of copyright law.
Copyright law is very complicated and varies by country. I’m not a lawyer and do not provide legal advice. You’ll have to make your own decision on what you can do. Kiarstami is an important artist. I’m sorry that copyright law makes it difficult for persons to engage in important cultural activities. Good luck!