cinema trust Morteza Veisi wrote in Etamed newspaper; Since the establishment of cinema in Iran, few personalities like Hamid Hamon have been able to make a place among the intellectuals and be so influential. In fact, Hamid Hamon went out of the mold of a movie character and became an image, gesture, or lifestyle that anyone who had a heart for books and poetry and culture as a whole connected himself to Hamid Hamon in one way or another, although critics such as Shahid Morteza Avini from He refused and Hamid Hamoun’s character and the film in general were severely criticized.
In any case, Hamid Hamoun became a role model and his personality traits became like a discourse that carried many stories and narratives in its heart. In other words, Hamid Hamoun had all the characteristics and signs that an Iranian intellectual “as a self-sacrifice” should have: a depressed and listless personality but at the same time passionate and disruptive, a lover of philosophy at the same time mixed with mysticism and sometimes religion, from poetry and poetry, “open nostalgia” and at the same time hating office and bureaucratic environment, people-loving and isolated at the same time, woman-loving at the same time Misogyny is a summary of a series of contradictions and contradictions that every Iranian and perhaps Middle Eastern intellectual has experienced in some way.
The set of these issues indicates that the character of Hamid Hamon is something beyond the cinema, but a narrator of types and characters and thoughts that have been leading the intellectual and cultural currents of this country for a long time. Many generations after Hamid inherited Hamid’s thoughts, gestures, words, and in general Hamid’s type, in such a way that we encountered the formation of a type called “Hamon Baz” among the youth.
On the other hand, Hamid Hamon’s character was attractive to a large part of the intellectual and educated generation after the revolution and it can be said that it still is. Hamid Hamon, like many intellectuals and educated people of his generation, had a traditional background. He came from a remote city to a city like Tehran and intends to create a new world. A world that may have been promised to many people after the 57 revolution, but many of them were disappointed and distressed.
A lot has been said and published about Hamid Hamon over the years. Hamon’s character has been examined from different perspectives, and the interesting thing is that Dariush Mehrjooi’s reaction to these judgments was an expression of ignorance, as if Mehrjooi had no conscious plan and intention to create the character of Hamid Hamon, but merely depicted the result of something that the character He himself and those around him were truly with him. Creating what he observed.
It is true that many things have been written about Hamid Hamon, but my generation also has the right to think about Hamid Hamon’s character and make their own judgment about the legacy that was left for him. Our generation, who perhaps opened their eyes to the world around the production of Hamon’s film, today have the right to think about a character that may have been far away from him, but we are the inheritors of something that Hamid Hamon and the Hamons made a part of.
Therefore, in this article, the reader is not going to encounter a film analysis and a film review. In fact, this text tries to look at the character of Hamid Hamon and its relationship with the historical atmosphere of the late sixties, to examine the possibility of connecting these two things, that is, the character and the history of that era, and this is already the hidden layers of that era and the historical and political impact on the future. (to the extent of general indications) to analyze.
In order to be able to analyze this relationship, we mention some historical events at the same time as the creation of Hamid’s character:
Fear and trembling: The collapse of the Soviet Union
One of the most important issues that we have to mention about the character of Hamid Hamon historically is the relationship between this character and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The film Hamon was made in 1368 and the collapse of the Soviet system was announced in 1369. But the reality of the Soviet system, with its inefficiencies and inability to achieve its goals and ideals, as well as the executions and political obstruction that it brought with it, was a long time ago that had collapsed in the minds of many intellectuals of the world. The Soviet system was no longer considered a compass and guide for many, and this had a great and deep impact on the intellectual currents of the third world, especially the leftist intellectuals.
The leftist intellectuals in Iran, who had experienced very difficult experiences with the 1957 revolution and the experiences after that, suddenly faced this issue. The Soviet system had lost all its meaning and influence on a large part of Iranian intellectuals.
This caused many Marxist leftist activists to turn away from this ideology. This turning away from the leftist ideology created a deep intellectual, spiritual, psychological and identity vacuum for many intellectuals. In fact, these intellectuals had to do something to fill this void. They should have been able to create a world in order to defend their intellectual identity. If they wanted to avoid the trap of everyday life and the resulting boredom, they should be able to create a space to survive and this space was nothing but mysticism and dealing with culture, literature and art.
Especially, this was Mehrjooi’s reference to Kierkegaard in Hamon’s film, perhaps in an unconscious way, a tongue twister to Marx and Marxist thinkers in Iran. We know that Kierkegaard, in addition to being a thinker of love and faith, was also an anti-Hegelian philosopher, whose system of thought can be used to criticize necessity and also economics in Marx’s thought. In fact, Mehrjooi, by bringing up this name – Kierkegaard – and referring to one of his most important works, Fear and Trembling, in this work somehow insulted all those who were proud of reading Marx for a lifetime and were proud of his name and his works. In fact, Kierkegaard and the moral and emotional subtleties he brought with him became a very attractive alternative for intellectuals who were tired and disillusioned with the dry system and petrified Marxist-Leninist ideas. In fact, the lack of the Soviet idea had turned them into displaced people for many intellectuals. They were looking for refuge in the world.
But that was not the whole story. The intellectuals’ turning away from the thought of Marxism and accepting mystical thoughts and going to the cultural, literary and artistic fields had another very important effect: “depoliticization”. More precisely, one of the fruits of this issue was a form of depoliticization that left a deep impact on the developments after it, which is beyond the scope of this field.
Where does this weakness of mine come from: the literature of doubt
The eight-year war with all its ups and downs finally ended in 1368 with the adoption of Resolution 598. This issue was not a simple event, but it was a promise of new attitudes and worlds that many Iranian people, especially intellectuals, saw in front of them.
The end of the war had profound effects on the society and intellectual world of Iranians. One of these effects was “doubt”. After the war, the minds of many Iranian people, especially the intellectuals, were full of strange questions and doubts, which, although they did not have the courage to express them, were still there, and we know that one of the most important characteristics of Hamid Hamoun’s personality was the constant doubts that he repeatedly had by rereading his memories. And especially his relationship with Mahshid was referring to it. For example, somewhere in the film, while cleaning the floor of his empty apartment, he utters this dialogue: “Why am I so weak against expressing power? Where does this weakness of mine come from? from my father from my mother from my homeland From Mahshid? Oh Mahshid… Mahshid”.
In fact, the society was full of doubt, and perhaps only through the literature of doubt, unanswered questions found a way to express themselves and express feelings. For this reason, Hamid Hamoun was inevitably involved in these doubts and endless questions, which may not have an answer for any of them.
Musty historical primitiveness: the emergence of Iranian capitalism
In addition to the end of the war, 1368 also marked the beginning of more important events in the society. Akbar Hashmi Rafsanjani, in one of his Friday prayer sermons, referring to the end of the war and the beginning of the construction era, gave the news of a new era, which for many people, this era promised the formation of a special form of Islamic capitalism, symbolized by the presence and expansion of multinational companies and extensive government investments in The imported technologies were new. An incident that was repeatedly and directly mentioned in the movie.
In one of the most surreal parts of the film, we see the manager of Hamid Hamon’s office inviting him to join this world, and this dialogue takes place between the manager and Hamid Hamon:
Manager: Do you really not know what it means economically? How sensitive is it?
Hamon: It means taking advantage of cheap labor wages in third world countries.
Manager: stop this moldy historical primitiveness, poor thing, see where Korea is going?
Hamon: Where is he going? What did it come to? It’s like a bunch of cockroaches and ants, they are wading in the swamp of technique.”
In fact, it is true that some of the intellectuals were cut off from the leftist ideology, but these concerns and issues still existed and had not disappeared, only the methods of dealing with them were different. In fact, the solution that Hamid Hamon, or rather, Dariush Mehrjoui, recommended for these issues was a form of poetics and mysticism. The trap that many intellectuals and activists in this field fell into and had a deep impact on the subsequent developments and history.
One of the lasting moments in the film is the scene when Hamid Hamon does not find a particular person to test a new device that he took to the hospital and exposes himself to the test of this new device. This capital-oriented system must produce its own blood in order to survive, and it has no result except the destruction of Hamid Hamoun himself. In fact, it can be said that this scene is one of the most poetic and romantic scenes in the history of Iranian cinema. The scene in which Hamid Hamoun, in order to sell a product – today’s product – has to pour his blood into that device and destroy himself in order to be able to sell a product that, in the end, the market is so immature that it is willing to buy this device. can’t
Hamid Hamon was never able to mix with this system, and whenever he even tried to find a mix, nothing but scandal and ruin followed. Let’s not forget that in the end, it was Azimi, who was able to own his love, Mahshid. This tired, depressed intellectual became a victim of something he had no part in. For this reason, it was capitalism that ultimately took Hamid Hamon away from all the things he loved and cherished.
Final speech: representative of the times
Maybe few people can present a coherent and integrated narrative of Hamid Hamoun’s film. In fact, Hamon’s film was an amalgamation of issues that fosters this idea in the mind as if there was no script at all, but Dariush Mehrjoui only tried to portray his experiences and the world around him. Whatever Hamid Hamon was, he was a true representative of the world that crystallized and became immortal during that important historical period.