(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The first time I saw Maryam Zaree was at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin. In the theater Denial, directed by Yael Ronen, she approached her own mother from the stage. She asked her why they never talked about her being born in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, which since 1972 has been a prison for political prisoners and is known for serious human rights violations. Maryam cried on stage. In the room I cried too.
The second time I saw Maryam was in the emotionally charged documentary Born in Evin during the film's world premiere at the Berlin. This time, the young actor and director not only questions her silent mother, she embarks on a thorough examination of the circumstances surrounding her own birth in one of Iran's, and the world's most cruel, prisons.
Evin is notorious for her numerous executions and her brutal torture. Here, even pregnant women and mothers were ruthlessly abused in front of their children in the 1980 century. So far, the Iranian government has been silent about human rights violations.
The revolutions that went wrong
Around 2010 – 2011 saw the western world with hopes for the East and the Arab Spring. But the progress many of us hoped for and expected did not materialize. Instead, the region was plunged into political instability, Islamization and a protracted war in Syria. Decades earlier, another revolution went wrong in another Middle East country: Iran.
Her trauma is not personal, but collective.
Late in the 1970 century, many Iranians were dissatisfied with the Shah's oppressive and corrupt regime. They were hoping for progressive change, and Maryam Zaree's parents were among those. But the revolution did not go as expected - The Shah's monarchy was replaced by the Islamic regime led by Ayatollah Khomeini, and those who opposed the new regime were persecuted. Maryam's parents were arrested in 1983, and she was born in Evin Prison the same year. The story begins over 30 years later when the Iranian-German actress lands with a parachute in a deserted area and says, “I know I was born in prison. And that's pretty much all I know. "
Hidden pain
But it seems Maryam Zaree's body knows more about her past than she does. Once she was on a bus trip in Morocco where music was played over the speakers. Suddenly Maryam had a fit of panic – she couldn't stand the music, her body sweating and trembling with pain. Maryam had to ask the bus driver to turn off the radio. Later, his father explained that torture in the form of music was common in Evin prison. An endless loop of Quranic acid was played to the prisoners, and Maryam is very likely to be exposed to this torture as a fetus in her mother's stomach, or as a baby. Although Maryam had no recollection of it, her body responded to the music there on the bus in Morocco.
There are many traumatic black spots the film director feels the need to explore in this documentary. And Maryam is not alone: her trauma is not personal, but collective. Many were abused and killed in the political prisons in Iran. The former prisoners and their children share the same collective traumas, and – like other collective memories – they last for more than one or even two generations.
A collective trauma
The play Denial, where I saw Maryam play for the first time, is about the perfect story many people usually tell about themselves. The reason is simple: They want to be like everyone else. But Maryam chooses to reveal everything that is not perfect. Her mother – who is a psychologist with a doctorate and a local politician in Frankfurt – does not respond to her daughter's challenge and remains silent. Instead, Maryam begins to approach other people with a similar background, to find the missing pieces in the puzzle. She meets psychotherapists, former prisoners in Evin Prison and their children, and not only is she confronted with the horrific details, abuses and executions in Iran's prisons, she also learns about the psychological mechanisms people develop to deal with traumatic events.
As an example, many Iranian opposition children have become successful and responsible adults in the countries they migrated to. They did not win the fight in Iran, but in their new lives they continue to prove that their parents' ideals were right.
Born in Evin is structured as a political, psychotherapeutic session. Towards the end of the documentary, Maryam's mother finally breaks down and opens up about the psychological mechanisms she uses to cope.
Coming to Germany as a single mother was a major challenge in itself. She wanted to start a new life, get a good education and a good job, make progress. In order to accomplish this task, she had to forget. But trauma does not disappear. Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, "Study the past if you want to predict the future." Maryam is really making a hard effort in Born in Evin, where she conducts a complex study of her own and similar biographies to redefine the future.
Translated by Sigrid Strømmen
