A Screen Version of the Story of Salinger Translated into Farsi

Abstract

The article analyzes the film Pari (1995) by the Iranian Director
Dariush Mehrjui based on J.D.Salinger's book Franny and Zooey. The screen
adaptation was made without Salinger’s authorization, so the film went on quietly,
without much visibility at international events, including film festivals. Unlike
many other Iranian films of that time, where a woman's freedom is assumed
as an achievement, the film Pari shows a female character who perceives her
freedom as a given. But freedom turns out to be a burden for her, resulting in a
deep existential soul-searching crisis. The problem of the interaction of a highly
gifted personality with the world of the ordinary people found in Salinger’s
prose, proved to be relevant for Iran of the 1990s.
In the film Pari, Mehrjui introduced fundamentally new characters for
Iranian cinema of the 1990s. On the one hand, there was an emancipated
and independent intellectual woman, on the other, a full-hearted and secure
intellectual man who had been through the war.
Iranian films of the Shah period typically portrayed intellectuals as
unpractical and hysterical members of society. In his film Pari, Mehrjui creates
an image of intellectuals the audience can connect with. Compared to Salinger,
he is far less judgmental and critical towards the ordinary people who he
sees as complex individuals not perfectly consistent in everything they do in
live. Despite the obvious differences in the characters’ world outlooks and in
the social conditions around them, Salinger and Mehrjui come to the same
conclusion: one should always follow their heart and try to find fulfillment in
their lives.
It proves to be a pattern that screen adaptations set in Iran but based on the
works of Western authors acquire political implications and reflect the currents
and attitudes of society, as well as its ideological and political trends.