Arash Fahim’s Critique of Narges Abyar’s First Episode of Suvashun: Adapting a Literary Text is Honorable and Esteemed. However…
According to CinamaDrame News Agency, Arash Fahim, a journalist and film critic, wrote a note regarding the first episode of Narges Abyar‘s banned series, “Suvashun“:
“Adapting the novel ‘Suvashun‘ for a series is an important and good event, but alas, Narges Abyar has directed this series in such a way that, at least in the first episode, it suffers from a wandering form, a confused camera, a bumpy and boring narrative, and contradictory content. Most tragically, the adaptation of Simin Daneshvar‘s great novel in this series has happened in a way that only those who have read this novel and are familiar with contemporary history can connect with the series and its constructed world!
Previously, in a note published in the media, I had defended the production of the ‘Suvashun‘ series and written that, in addition to the prominence of the novel ‘Suvashun,’ which is considered one of the unparalleled works of contemporary Iranian literature, depicting this text sheds light on a dark corner of Iran’s history in the last century; a period full of calamities and turmoil resulting from the reign of Reza Mirpanj (known as Pahlavi), and familiarity with it is a disgrace to any patriotic Iranian. The period of Reza Shah‘s fear and escape, and the occupation of our country by foreign forces and the imposition of famine, hunger, disease, and death by England. Certainly, going to a rich literary text that deals with this ominous corner of our past is honorable and esteemed. However, Narges Abyar‘s adaptation of this novel – at least in the first episode – is such that this perspective of the novel ‘Suvashun‘ has been pushed aside, and the first party of the story and its sidelines have been highlighted. Those who have not read the source novel will only see a made-up doll moving around in a ceremony, with people loitering around her; that’s it! This is while adapting a story or novel means that, with the help of visuals, the challenges of connecting with a literary narrative should be removed, and an audience who does not have the patience, time, or literacy to read a sophisticated literary work should easily grasp it through a visual adaptation. But alas, Abyar‘s Suvashun has done the opposite; it has made Daneshvar‘s narrative more difficult and heavier and has failed to provide a fluid and digestible drama, especially for the general audience.
The first episode of the series ‘Suvashun‘ is full of redundant and superfluous details that unnecessarily extended its duration to about 80 minutes. For example, one of the scenes in this series focuses on a drunken MacMahon and his antics, and the camera revolves around him, and the unfortunate audience has to endure about 15 minutes of this drunk man’s useless chatter!
One of the factors making the series’ relationship with the audience difficult is the characters’ supposedly Shirazi accent, which has weakened the actors’ delivery and made the dialogues hard to hear. Also, the turning point and the main hero of the Suvashun story (Yousef) has a very weak and repulsive characterization; a man who abandons his wife in the middle of a party for no reason and it’s unclear what he goes after! In contrast, one of the negative characters in the story, Yousef‘s brother (Khan Kaka), is designed to be attractive and dynamic in the series. Another point is the design and makeup of Zari (Zahra). In the novel ‘Suvashun,’ Zari is an aware and suffering woman of that era who distributes charity in prisons and mental hospitals every week, but Narges Abyar has designed and made up this character like a Barbie and so-called fashion women.
Another problem with the series ‘Suvashun‘ is its contradictory and wandering form. That is, on one hand, Abyar has tried to do experimental work and implement an artistic form – which has not been successful and has resulted in a confused and confusing, dizzying camera – but on the other hand, parts of this series, especially its emotional scenes, resemble vulgar Turkish series! It seems that Narges Abyar has fallen prey to the demands of ‘platform capitalism’ and, in the competition of home viewing platforms for more profit, has moved towards polluting her narrative of Suvashun. This speculation and possibility also arises that the owners of the ‘Suvashun‘ series, being confident that this series would not be able to connect with the general audience and would fail, have, following Filimo’s pattern for the series ‘Tasian,’ resorted to self-imposed banning and creating controversy to attract attention!”
