Iranian irony
November 30th, 2007
From Guardian’s website (Comment is free..) by Nasrin Alavi
Washington is using the sort of rhetoric it used in the build-up to the war in Iraq. The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, looms forever large in the western media. So you may care to see a few Iranian faces other than Ahmadinejad’s for a change.
The video above, for a song by the underground Iranian band Kiosk, titled Love for Speed, was filmed entirely in Tehran. It’ll give you a flavour of the sort of music that booms out of rickety taxis and flash cars alike in city’s maddening traffic. Kiosk are very popular in Iran.
The video was shot in a two-and-a-half days by Ahmad Kiarostami (son of the legendary Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami). Ahmad just walked up to passers-by in Tehran asking them to mime the lyrics.
I have to warn you that Kiosk sound far too much like Dire Straits. I also have to share a dark Iranian secret with you here. There are many Iranians who love Dire Straits, Pink Floyd and Manchester United Football Club with a passion. Although the track is subtitled the translation in the video isn’t that great. But you’ll get the gist, the opening lyrics are:
The power of love or love of power
Modernism versus tradition foreverLiving in the axis of evil
Drive a Citroen 2CV and a have a love for speedWhy feel any pain and suffer
With pills and powders at handNothing to eat for lunch or dinner
Then let them eat yellowcake
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