In the very first scene of An Owl, a Garden and the Writer, revered Iranian novelist Mahmoud Dowlatabadi sits in his chair in the comfort of his own home, his young granddaughter blocking the camera’s view as she flits back and forth. The way he talks to the little girl immediately tells you of his gentleness and the love he has for his family.
In the next scene he is on the phone with someone who is trying to arrange an interview. The writer tells the young man in no uncertain terms he can forget about it – he will not be interviewed for an institution which has let his work be censored for decades. His arguments are persuasive and strict, and it is clear there is no way he will change his mind. But he is also very polite and friendly.
Then a quote about how he struggles with writing: ‘Two steps and one turn. That is all it would take for me, to sit at my desk. But those turns and that step are the most difficult task, the most daunting distance.’ Once he has, indeed, taken those turns and that step, he is fully dedicated to the process, he also explains at various points in the documentary. That is how he produced an impressive amount of lauded books, among which are ‘Kelidar’, the longest novel in Persian history, and ‘The Colonels’, famously banned for over forty years in Iran.
Sara Dolatabadi builds the portrait of her father carefully and lovingly, with atmospheric, almost nostalgic shots of him in his home with her mother and her daughter, Mahmoud’s grandchild. The camera seems to incidentally catch him, rummaging through stuff, or taking his granddaughter through the luscious garden to look at the small animals roaming around. Sometimes he is aware of the camera and talks about defining moments in his life, which are also illustrated by beautiful found footage: the political changes, the emigration and remigration, the intimidation by Iran’s secret police, his imprisonment and release.
In between, Sara reads passages from his books, which mirror circumstances in their beloved country, and the different states of mind engendered by those circumstances. And they show his incredible talent, intelligence, intellect and profound knowledge of the human condition.
The film feel like it is lightly floating in a sea of mysticism, creating a sense that anything could happen: from the trees in the garden an owl could fly in and transform into a human being. One of the characters from one his books might indeed be omnipresent, watching Mahmoud’s every step, like the secret police.
An Owl, a Garden and the Writer is a highly lyrical and delicate, yet powerful, depiction of a writer of mythical proportions, humanising him along the way and educating us on the severe Iranian regime of past decades. It weaves together all aspects of her beloved father within a memorable document. Memory is the treasurer of illusions, the force that holds traces of the past in the mind. Sara Dolatabadi holds the key to that treasure and in her documentary unlocks the valuable contents of her father’s life and soul.
Iran/France/Switzerland, 2023, 83 mins
Director and writer: Sara Dolatabadi
Producers: Sara Dolatabadi, Farhad Mohammadi
Executive producer: Amir Naderi
Cinematography and sound: Sara Dolatabadi
Music: Peyman Yazdanian
Sound design: Amir Hossein Ghasemi, Viktor Ekrt
Editing: Afsaneh Salari, Sara Dolatabadi, Naghmeh Abassi
