Iranians overjoyed at first Oscar win

‘Iran cinema made history,’ the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) says.

TEHRAN: Iranians took to the Internet and mobile phones on Monday to proclaim their pride and joy at their country’s first win at the Oscars – and at the speech by triumphant director Asghar Farhadi putting culture above politics.

Messages filled SMS servers and social networks moments after the movie, A Separation was awarded the best foreign language Oscar at the US Academy Awards.

Only Iranians braving a ban on satellite television receivers were able to see the Oscars live, broadcast by foreign channels into their homes before dawn Tehran time.

But they quickly launched an avalanche of electronic exchanges that only increased as state-controlled television replayed the key moment throughout the day.

“I got up super early to watch the Oscars, and I am glad that we won. The movie was brilliant and it has made us all very proud in Iran. I wish there were more freedom for (Iranian) directors to express their brilliant ideas,” said one 26-year-old, Sara, who did not give her last name.

Media reported the win in the United States as a victory of Iranian culture, with a few noting with glee that “A Separation” beat Israeli film “Footnote” to take the golden statuette.

“Iran cinema made history,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) said.

Another outlet, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), claimed that an “Iranian flag has been planted atop America”.

The head of the culture ministry unit in charge of supervising Iran’s movie industry, Ali Reza Sajadpour, told ISNA that “this success belongs to Iranian cinema”.

He stressed the ministry had given its “support” to have the movie presented at the Oscars – though he omitted to say that authorities had briefly blocked it being filmed in 2010 because of Farhadi’s sympathies for other film-makers deemed “dissident”.

“I am happy that the political atmosphere did not get to A Separation since there was this possibility that political stances could have an impact on this award,” he said.

Farhadi’s acceptance speech emphasising his country’s desire to be seen as a complete nation, one that contributes much more than the geopolitical tensions over its nuclear programme suggest, prompted accolades from ordinary Iranians.

“At the time when talk of war, intimidation and aggression is exchanged between politicians, the name of their country, Iran, is spoken here through her glorious culture, her rich and ancient culture that has been hidden under the heavy dust of politics,” Farhadi told the Oscars audience.

Jafar, 29, wrote on his Facebook page that his happiness was not just because of the unprecedented Oscar win – “it’s more because of what he (Farhadi) said”.

Hossein, 30, from Isfahan, added: “Thank you Asghar Farhadi! It had been soooo long we hadn’t taken pride in ourselves”.

Negar, 28, summed it up on her Facebook page. “We all kind of knew he would win, and that the movie would get an Oscar. But the speech was what made my day. It is time for the world to look at Iran in a different light”.

A Separation presents a social expose of the Islamic republic behind the veneer of a taut family drama, while exploring themes of love, lies and honour.

The movie begins with a reluctant divorce bid by a couple, but broadens out as they find themselves in a separate legal dispute with another couple following a desperate, tragic event at home.

As the story develops, it becomes clear that A Separation is about a wider narrative: that of a fracture in the country in which they live, between Iran’s middle class whose values and missteps are easily recognised by audiences everywhere, and Iran’s poorer underclass, with its feeling of powerlessness and adherence to religion.