Narges Abyar to make film on Iranian novel ‘Savushun’

Iranian filmmaker Narges Abyar has been planning to make a movie on ‘Savushun’ by Iranian novelist Simin Daneshvar.

The celebrated director has previously written the screenplay and made a series based on the bestselling novel for release on domestic Iranian VoD platforms.

‘Savushun’, published in 1969, chronicles the life of a Persian family in the midst of the Allied occupation of Iran during World War II.

It is set in Shiraz, a town that evokes images of Persepolis and pre-Islamic monuments, the great poets, the shrines, Sufis, and nomadic tribes within a historical web of the interests, privilege and influence of foreign powers; corruption, incompetence and arrogance of persons in authority; the paternalistic landowner-peasant relationship; tribalism; and the fear of famine.

The story is seen through the eyes of Zari, a young wife and mother, who copes with her idealistic and uncompromising husband while struggling with her desire for traditional family life and her need for individual identity.

The heroic stand taken by the southern family against British colonial intrigues ends in the murder of the husband, with the wife determined to carry on the struggle.

Daneshvar’s style is both sensitive and imaginative while following cultural themes and metaphors.

Within basic Iranian paradigms, the characters play out the roles inherent in their personalities.

Although written prior to the Islamic Revolution, ‘Savushun’ brilliantly portrays the social and historical forces that gave pre-revolutionary Iran its characteristic hopelessness and emerging desperation so inadequately understood by outsiders.

Abyar is the director of some acclaimed movies, including ‘Track 143’, ‘Breath’ and ‘When the Moon Was Full’.

She has been honored at several international festivals and cultural centers.

Earlier in March, she was honored with the Director Achievement Award at the International Women Filmmakers Festival 2022 in Izmir, Turkey.

In 2020, she received the HUM Women Leaders Award at the Governor’s House in the Pakistani city of Karachi.

Her 2019 drama ‘When the Moon Was Full’ received the audience award at the 23rd Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in Estonia.

MG/AG