NP not even the oil

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

Dear Cathy:

note that Mr K applied for the US visa in Paris, the Mecca of European
modernism. And the two Ks are both modernists, especially the Iranian.
So if it's political, it's (however naively and anachronistically)
political under the flag of the transnational State of Art (if you have
seen "A Taste of Cherry", you know what I mean - we are dealing with
the Southwest Asian Antonioni). And, perhaps vainly, he wants to maintain
the State of Art and not to pull the film, a piece of his Art. "Iran" is
not a monolithic entity but a field of struggle where the guy has never
had too many sympathizers to being with, on the contrary. The incident
will no doubt benefit those (esp. the religious junta) who have always
been against him.

If Thomas Pynchon, e.g., gave (however naive) an interview for a Japanese
magazine, I probably wouldn't rush to the conclusion that it were,
exhaustively and directly, about governmental relations between the US
and Japan.


Heikki


On Wed, 2 Oct 2002, cathy ramirez wrote:

>
> --- Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at mail.student.oulu.fi>
> wrote:
> >
> >
> > One Visa Problem Costs a Festival Two Filmmakers
> >
> > By CELESTINE BOHLEN
> >
> >
> > The internationally acclaimed Iranian film director
> > Abbas Kiarostami, who
> > won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1997 for "A Taste of
> > Cherry," was unable
> > to get a United States visa in time to attend the
> > premiere of his new
> > film, "Ten," at the New York Film Festival last
> > Saturday, prompting his
> > friend and fellow director Aki Kaurismaki of Finland
> > to boycott the
> > festival in protest.
>
> The cultural exchange? The film is going to win more
> awards here. Give me a break. This is political. The
> cuban musicans played the same political game. It will
> sell more CDs and more tickets. He knew about the Visa
> requirements. They have been in place for a year now.
> If they want to protest they should pull the film.
> Come on, don't be fooled. The political argumet about
> the exchange of bombs might make more sense if the
> film and film maker were from Iraq. The US is bombing
> Iraq not Iran and Iraq is ten times more open to
> cultural excchange than Iran.
> Hypocracy and politics!@
>
>
>
>
> >
> > If the United States authorities do not want "an
> > Iranian, they will hardly
> > have any use for a Finn, either," he wrote. "We do
> > not even have the oil."
>
> Lots or Iranian live and visit the US. But the US does
> not want Iranians here w/o valid Visas. That makes a
> lot of sense from where I'm sitting. Perhaps if
> members of your family were murdered on 9/11 you would
> see it differnetly.
>
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