Giti and I just saw Iran’s contribution to the Academy Awards, and, I have to say…it was damned good! I’m not going to write a review on this particular film, however, though I believe it had one of the best (if not the best) endings to a film. Rather, I wanted to analyze the three main female characters to use as a springboard to what I could have easily entitled this essay: Goodbye Etta: There’ll Never Be Another Like You!
Now I’ve always known that the female is a very complex being – and after seeing “A Separation” (and living with Giti these past 5-year-or-so [not to mention 2 former wives]) I can definitively state that Persian women have to be the most complex women of all (you’ll understand if you watch the film to the very end!)!
The Persian wife seeking a divorce in the film represents the contemporary Iranian woman who sees no hope or future in remaining in Iran. She has tasted, or, has sufficient knowledge of the West to find no reason to remain in the Islamic world. The caretaker (who comes into the home when the wife leaves the flat and her Alzheimered father-in-law) is a devout Muslim – who needs to check major decisions with moral implications with a religious advisor. She represents the women who will remain in Iran to be governed by the mullahs. The wife who wishes to leave has an 11-year-old daughter: who is torn between her mother and the traditional Iranian ways; exemplified by her father and the caretaker. These three women each have complexities that make interacting with them extremely difficult (wait till you see the end) and each-of-them is forced to deal with certain levels of abuse in a male dominated society…and…here comes the segue to Etta…because no woman on the planet has been more abused than the African American Female, or, American Black Woman (this I remember from my multi-cultural, ethnic and gender studies from back-in-the-day). So, though you might imagine that the Iranian Woman could sing the Blues – only the Black American Woman can deliver (Janis and Annie Lennox excepted!).
Etta – never a voice quite like hers! I love Billie; Janis; Norah; Melissa; the Annies (Lennox and Haslem); and, Roberta moved me as well – but no one did it (or does it) quite like Etta. She paid her dues, and, she can sing the blues…and those of us who love the Blues – know that you gotta pay those dues…
Growing up as a-second-class citizen, Etta was fortunate enough to meet Johnny Otis and have a-couple-of-big-hits early on. As some of us are aware of, it’s best to keep subjugated cultures heavily sedated (particularly if they are in the majority – like those Brits in China!). So, Etta’s addiction problems should have surprised no one – since the Blues are always more powerfully expressed with heroin, alcohol, cigarettes and whatever else you can fit into the mix.
Iran has an ever-mounting heroin problem – as-a-matter-of-fact – those Iranians like their drugs as much or more than Americans do. Heroin addicts in Iran are reportedly pushing 6 million…they must be preparing for that invasion of the West…
So, a culture screwed understands the Blues. I wonder if those Iranians stuck in limbo…should they stay or should they go…have noted Etta’s passing…her separation from-all-of-us…