ARTISTIC SPACE IN DOCUMENTARY NOVEMBER 2021 M.R. Chirkin

The documentary "Behtarin" was made by the Persian filmmaker Mohsen Rahimi from Kuwait. The film takes place in Tajikistan. Although the film "Bekhtarin" did not receive any prizes, it gathered a full hall of spectators and acclaim.

When discussing the film after watching it, the audience expressed their sincere empathy and gratitude to the creators for the warmth, beauty, and humanity of the film.  In the words of the author of the film, Mohsen Rahimi, his task was originally to acquaint the Arab world with the Navruz holiday. But as he deepened in the material, the director began to open new opportunities to show the hidden deep existential meanings of human life through the prism of artistic perception of the world. And, in my opinion, the film really became a clear embodiment of the interweaving of lyrical and poetic plotlines with the folklore and epic main motive of the film.

From the first shots in the film "Behtarin", the theme of ethnographic research is set. A young Iranian girl from London, Natya, arrives in Dushanbe to highlight the holiday of the beginning of spring Navruz in Tajikistan. Her fellow travelers recommend Siyavash, an aged man who, himself, was not in his native land for almost a quarter of a century. So, a journey to the origins of the folklore-traditional holiday Navruz turns into a journey through the labyrinths of the soul of Siyavash. Navruz holiday itself and preparation for it become a platform for actions that, with the appearance of the figure of the main hero Siyavash, form an important semantic storyline in the development of existential love drama. The author of the film involves Kaet in a grandiose art space set in real people, showing real situations related to the Navruz holiday. They would go with their way of life in this field of magical realism as if creating together with the author intricate patterns of a huge oriental carpet film. Natya's character leads a rich history line costumed holiday Navruz, immerses the viewer in the world of dances, music, and ritual stadiums of men on horseback. All shooting took place really live, achieving a picturesque effect of tactile visual perception.

Siyawash's line brings a lyrical-romantic motif to the film and saturates the film with a mood of love. The unfulfilled love of Siyavash, who left his native land to take with him the pain of losing his beloved Bekhtarin, who was given as a wife to another, creates his own fascinating fairy-tale outline of her searches and fills the events with hidden meanings. The magical beauty of the landscape is delightful, bright objects, and a palette of colors creates a colorful, rich world, consonant with picturesque films by Sergei Parajanov. Navruz is a holiday at the beginning of spring, which means the beginning of a new life, and new hopes. And this epic meaning of the national holiday reveals through the main character Siyavash the existential meanings of human life, love, of death. 

Under a sprawling centuries-old tree, Siyavash is waiting for her beloved Bekhtarin, who every year on the Navruz holiday comes here with a secret dream to see Siyavash. This time, she's not there. Inconsolable Siyavash pours out his grief by singing and playing the rubab, a stringed national instrument. But it happens that the meeting that radically changes the attitude that the hero has toward the world and himself. The scene at the meeting with the wise old shepherd becomes turn-key, after which Siyavash acquires spiritual harmony and peace.

What is going on here? The shepherd reads verses that say that life moves on, that you can’t get stuck in the past, you have to choose new paths, change yourself, otherwise, life will pass you by.

This scene also reveals the symbolic meaning of the film's title "Beh Tarin", which means "the best" in translation. Bekhtarin did not come, perhaps realizing the futility and uselessness of her waiting. "There's something in the life of the best. And the best is not the most important thing in life,” the words of the author of the film are poetically and picturesquely reflected in the scene of the meeting of the hero with the shepherd under the dense crown of the tree of life.

Any of our journeys, every step, and creativity leave their imprints in our lives. And most importantly, to feel the flight that the director spoke about

Mohsen Rahimi, perhaps referring to the flight of our fantasies, which does not limit freedom, opens up new paths, makes us sensitive to existential change, and is willing to accept it.

The film "Bekhtarin" by its nature is a synthesis of documentary footage and a staged story, organically embedded in the spectacular fabric of the narrative of the Navruz holiday. Weaving the personal love drama of you as a fictional character with flashback scenes into an exploratory canvas film makes it attractive to the viewer, providing interesting opportunities for creating multifaceted ethnographic films.

This is the value and novelty of the film. Hidden wise meanings, which reflect the richness of the Persian culture, revealed through poetic pictorial images, coupled with a rich palette of visual images, allow us to characterize the film "Bekhtarin" as a folklore and poetic parable

The genre of the film-investigation with the interweaving of its characteristic plot lines from the past is becoming more and more popular in the big cinema graph. Reconstruction of past events in the context of a documentary blurs the line between feature films and non-fiction films.

Aida Soboleva 10/12/2021 Iranian Spirit in the halls of Kazan Film Festival

Behtarin filmmaker Mohsen Rahimi (born 1975) is Persian by nationality but grew up and lives permanently in Kuwait. Graduated from the Institute of Radio and Television in Tehran. Fluent in several languages. For more than 20 years, he has been working at the Kuwait State Radio and Television. He acted as a producer of several feature and documentary films and starred in the popular Iranian comedy "Bitter Dream" (2004).

The director's parents are Iranian. To paraphrase a well-known saying, we note: “A person can be taken out of Iran. But Iran can never be taken out of a person.” Mohsen Rahimi's film is thoroughly saturated with Iranian symbols, the spirit of Iranian culture. And not only because the action of the film takes place during Novruz, the ancient Iranian New Year holiday widely celebrated in Tajikistan as the Spring Festival. The protagonist of the film Siyavush bears the euphonious name of a character from the Iranian epic Shahnameh.

Although the film is listed as a "documentary", the role of Siyavush is played by Dovlat Rajabov, a folk instrument teacher. Siyavush was instructed to accompany photojournalist Natia Amimi, who arrived from London, and makes a report about Novruz. Her mother is Iranian, and Natia understands Tajik, which is close to Farsi. Siyavush tells her the story of his 25-year-old love for a girl whom he himself gave the nickname "Bektarin" ("The Best") for the fact that she was the best dancer in the local folklore ensemble. Behtarin was seemingly in love with Siyavush; nevertheless, chose his close friend as her husband. Feeling betrayed, Siyavush went on a journey to escape from his love. For a quarter of a century, he traveled to many countries, without creating a family and without becoming a master in any field. And so he returned in the hope that the meeting with Behtarin in his native city under the "Wishing Tree" ("Arzu") at the time of Novruz would compensate for the years spent and revive Spring in the soul. However, Behtarin never appears either at the appointed time or in the film at all.

Instead, a gray-haired shepherd comes to rest under a tree, and in his calm words about the connection between nature and man, God's help in his affairs, Siyavush receives answers to many questions that tormented his soul.

After the screening, Mohsen Rahimi explained the concept of his film this way: Novruz is the oldest holiday on Earth, its history spans several millennia. In this film, through the philosophy of Novruz, we wanted to show the philosophy of life - both an individual person and life in general. Here, every episode and every frame has a hidden meaning. After all, the different days of Novruz symbolize the main stages of a person's life - birth, flourishing, love, procreation, aging, death, and resurrection. I was born in Kuwait, I traveled a lot in my life, I was in 22 countries, but when I got to Tajikistan, I felt that I had returned home. I really liked the inhabitants of this country and their culture is close. However, my goal was not to show the sights of Tajikistan and the peculiarities of the celebration of Novruz there. I wanted to acquaint the Arab world in which I live with the deep philosophy of this holiday.”

There were many in the auditorium for whom the word "Novruz" is not an empty phrase: numerous representatives of the Tajik diaspora of Kazan came. I spoke with them after watching and discussing the film.

- So you watched a film dedicated to Novruz, or rather, even to a wanderer who came to him from afar, a kind of modern “Majnun”, who for many years has been in love with a dream girl living in his native place with the name Bekhtarin invented by him. What are your first thoughts about this film? Did you feel something familiar?

– You know, when you watch a film and see the places where you yourself were born and raised, then, of course, sometimes tears came while watching. The realities of life in Tajikistan dear to the heart are shown. Although, of course, it is felt that this is a view from the outside, and at first you do not accept everything. There is a complex director's idea, and I am a mathematician by profession. Something seemed illogical to me, not entirely rational. However, when the director explained everything thoroughly after the film, I agreed with him.

– Can you introduce yourself?

– Maaruf Khadzhiev, I have been living in Kazan for more than 30 years, a candidate in physical and mathematical sciences.

And here is the opinion of another viewer from the Tajik diaspora of Kazan: 

- It seems to me that this film has a lot of symbolism, and a lot of subtexts, each of which requires its own interpretation and understanding. The life cycles of the protagonist run in parallel with the Novruz cycles. What is Novruz? This is a revival in a broad sense - both of nature and of the human soul. And in the end, this hero comes to the conclusion that the origins of life, like the origins of Novruz, are in love. It's a good, deep film. Very instructive. I would advise many to see it, - said Lotfullo Ismoilov, a teacher of Iranian history at Kazan Federal University.

- The director of the film wanted to convey to people that there is such a thing as the "evolution of the soul." It exists in Islamic philosophy, and in philosophy in general. Everyone must make a path for the development of his soul. It is no coincidence that the protagonist at the end met an old man who told him that happiness depends on the person himself - God only indicates the direction, but the person himself chooses an alternative. This idea is not contrary to the spirit of Islam, the spirit of Zoroastrianism, or the spirit of any other religion. And most importantly, I think the director managed to show that the Tajiks, like the Iranians and the Afghans, are the most ancient Persian civilization, whose peoples are united by great literature, and common traditions, such as the celebration of Novruz, and special forms of communication. No wonder the guest from Moscow was surprised at the press conference: “Do ordinary people really talk like that in Tajikistan?” I really liked that the director answered her: “The people there are really very polite and educated, they are the heirs of a great culture and keep in their memory a huge number of poems and sayings of the sages.” Unfortunately, in Russia, public opinion is being created around Tajiks who are the most illiterate and almost wild people. And this film just showed our culture,  -  said Oymahmad Malikov, lecturer at the Russian Islamic University in Kazan.

The film "Bekhtarin" was presented at the festival as a "documentary", but its genre caused controversy among film critics during the discussion of the film. Ultimately, it was defined as "a feature documentary with docudrama elements."