TWILIGHT IDENTIFIES ALLEVIATION OF POVERTY AS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT
The Iranian revolution of 1979 repudiated the rule of the Shah, in part because windfall revenues from oil went to crony capitalists while the rest of the population lived in poverty. Nearly twenty-five years later, the Shah is gone but poverty remains, including the associated ill of prostitution, and the subtext of many Iranian films is that once again the regime is responsible. Twilight, directed by Hasan Hedayat, is no exception. Mohammad Alavi (played by Ezzatollah Entezami), a homicide inspector approaching 70, is unhappy. His wife died early in their marriage, and his children are absent from his life. All that he does in his workaholic existence (resembling BBC’s Inspector Morse) is to look at dead bodies and then to try to find out who is responsible. Two bodies provide the latest mystery for him, especially since one contains a woman’s photograph that lists two telephone numbers on the reverse side, and the other has the same photograph, framed and larger, which is posted in the dead man’s photo studio. One of the two telephone numbers is that of Alavi’s home, which baffles him. The other number is of a café that he often frequents. According to the owner of the café, the dead woman is Pari, who was a drug addict and informant for a notorious gangster, Darbandi (played by Ahmad Majafi) who in turn is pressuring her to sell her café–or else. Although Pari’s death is doubtless due to the gangster, without proof there is no arrest. Possibly because Alavi’s cannot find a connection with the dead woman whom he does not recognize, Alavi becomes delusionary, seeing visions of his wife Farangis (played by Ghaziani) and two children as well as the dead woman and many others. Through his visions, he solves the mystery about the dead woman’s identity, but that appears to be after he dies. Yet another subtext in the film, which figures into the unraveling of the mystery, is about the prejudice of Moslems toward Christian Armenians in Iran. Accordingly, the Political Film Society has nominated Twilight for an award as best film on human rights for 2003. MH