Maryam Review
by Greg Vasich
In a time when most movies about teenagers retread
the same characters and plot lines, Maryam (2000), written and directed by
Iranian-American first-time filmmaker Ramin Serry, is a film centered around its
teenage title character but confronts far more difficult and important issues
than who’s taking who to the prom. The film is set in a New Jersey suburb during
the time of the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran, depicting an Iranian-American
family attempting to live a normal life in the face of growing anti-Iranian
racism. Similarly, since September 11th, many people of Middle Eastern descent
in the US have been targets of prejudice and aggression. Maryam reveals the
darker side of the hyper-nationalism that follows these traumatic events,
challenging viewers to rethink their own responses.
The film begins with the arrival of Maryam’s (Mariam
Parris) cousin Ali (David Ackert), who has come from Iran to live with her
family while studying physics at a local college. He appears at the airport,
looking confused and out of place, wearing clothes that do not quite fit. Maryam
attempts to greet him with a hug, from which he backs away. Her father (Shaun
Toub) later explains that cousins often marry in Iran and such contact would be
inappropriate. Growing up in American society, she initially feels many of Ali’s
beliefs are alien to her. Maryam sees herself as the typical teen; she
participates in the school’s news club and has a crush on her co-anchor, a white
boy named Jamie (Victor Jory). However, the beginning of the hostage crisis
shakes the typical life that she and her family knew as the predominantly white
community they live in begins to view them as outsiders, reacting towards their
presence with fear and anger.
Ali comes to the US angry at the nation for protecting
the deposed Iranian shah, a man he views as a heinous murderer. The Iranian
people, as well as the Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s new leader, want the shah
returned so that he can be tried for murder and executed, but the US refuses to
release him from a New York hospital where he is being treated. As an Iranian,
Ali is outraged at what he views as the US standing in the way of justice and
expresses his love for the Ayatollah, a man who calls the US “the Great Satan.”
Such strong words certainly rub many Americans the wrong way, but Ali’s opinions
are presented objectively, as those of an earnest, devout Iranian Muslim, not
those of a crazed fanatic. The film also tempers Ali’s opinions by emphasizing
that he has only been so strongly religious for a year, since his mother died.
Thus, his opinions cannot be fully informed, and the movie does not attempt to
present Ali as capable of speaking for all Iranians. However, the portrayal of
many white American characters as ignorant and susceptible to racism does bring
us to sympathize with the Iranian position.
The film also effectively intertwines news footage from
1979 with events in its plot. It displays the media playing up flag burning
demonstrations in Iran, depicting that nation’s citizens as violent and
hate-filled. We then see pro-Iranian protesters in America being beaten, with an
especially brutal clip of a protester getting knocked to the ground, only to
then get kicked in the head. This increasingly unsafe and uncomfortable climate
is also displayed in the narrative, with Maryam and her family having to
persevere through hostile actions ranging from a racial epithet spray-painted on
their car to a brick thrown through their window. The integration of non-fiction
elements into this story line adds to the film’s power and credibility.
In addition to using historical footage to back up the
plot, another of Maryam’s strengths is its ability to use its story to make us
view some images in a new light. One of the most powerful examples is a clip of
a giant yellow ribbon tied around a skyscraper, following the appearance of a
ribbon on Maryam’s neighbors’ tree. The ribbons were intended as symbols of
unity and hope, but the film’s events make the skyscraper look like a giant
symbol of oppression. There are other clips of red, white, and blue clad
Americans shouting for the US to bomb Iran. While the motives behind yellow
ribbons and renewed patriotism may have been pure, the film makes it clear the
some Americans have perverted the desire to rescue American lives into the
desire to end Iranian lives. The footage is again an effective tool in comparing
the maliciousness of US protests to the Iranian protests sensationalized in the
media. However, the film is again careful to avoid extremes and uses a clip of
President Carter condemning any racist response towards Iranian-Americans,
avoiding unilaterally labeling white Americans as racists.
The movie presents us with a picture of an Iranian-American family wonderfully
detailed down to the food they eat and the decorations in their house. But while
Maryam and her cousin are thoughtfully and compellingly depicted young people,
the movie’s lone weakness is in falling back on stereotypes such as the snotty
blonde girl and pot head slacker in order to fill out the rest of its teenage
cast. The white characters in the movie are all so one-dimensional that it makes
you wonder if Serry was intentionally turning the tables on the usual teen
movies, which resort to stereotypes of ethnic minorities for their few non-white
characters. Even Jamie, with whom Maryam goes on a date to a roller skating
rink, remains flat and uninteresting. Never seeing white teenagers wrestle with
tough racial issues nor seeing why they decide to alienate Maryam forces us to
experience her confusion, but their unrealistic characterizations keep us from
feeling the impact found in the rest of the film.
Americans responded to the September 11th tragedy by
banding together in patriotism. Stores sold out of American flags, and
everywhere signs proclaimed statements from “God Bless America” to “Freedom Will
Be Defended.” People wore yellow ribbons and celebrated this growing nationalism
as a positive way of America coming together. But that coming together does not
include everyone; it froze out Iranians in 1979, much the way that people or
Middle Eastern descent are frozen out today. But even worse than exclusion is
the violence directed towards these groups, and the footage from 1979 to shows
the brutal reality of it. There has been similar hostility since September 11
and similar pleas from the President to cease such violence. But rather than
plead, Maryam shows us a human picture of the oppression these Americans face in
their own country, an image powerful enough to change minds.
Sadly, few people will have the opportunity to see
Maryam, because no major company has elected to distribute it, despite its being
championed by Roger Ebert, who selected it for his 2001 Overlooked Film
Festival. Serry has chosen to distribute it himself, and the film has played in
several large American cities, including a two week run at Chicago’s Music Box
Theatre. Hopefully, this added exposure will result in a video and DVD deal for
a film that is more deserving of an audience than many of the movies in theaters
today.