TV/DOCUMENTARY

EMPRESS FARAH PAHLAVI “THE QUEEN & I” 

Revisiting un chef-d’oeuvre.

It is never too late to talk about a magnificent achievement which passed unnoticed by many, and especially when it pertains to a documentary, considered by connoisseurs, filmmakers and social historians to be an eye-opener; this is the case of “The Queen And I”, directed and co-written by Nahid Persson Sarvestani, an award-winning Iranian-Swedish filmmaker and director. The film is worth revisiting, for it is un chef-d’oeuvre. In November, Persson Sarvestani finished “The Queen and I”, a powerful and heart-felt 90-minute documentary which absorbed her unexpected friendship with Iran’s former Empress, Farah Diba Pahlavi. The film is a masterpiece in the genre, a superb film not to miss; it will touch your heart, widen your understanding of the Iranian Revolution, and above all you will get the opportunity to meet the real Farah Pahlavi; a woman for all seasons, a woman with a warm heart, true feelings, and of course, an enormous presence. Before meeting the Empress, Sarvestani had already forged in her mind a pre-conceived picture of Empress Farah, based upon the sharp contrast of the life she lived in total poverty in Iran, and the fairy-tale lifestyle of the Empress. The main and initial purpose of Sarvestani, a former communist and anti-Shah, was to criticize and expose the regime of the late Shah, but the documentary turned into a coup de theatre, and a visual portrayal of a candid and warm relationship between the Empress and the director.
Ironically, both ended in exile following the Iranian revolution. Sarvestani in a quasi socio-intellectual style and controlled emotions, explained the rise of Khomeini and the downfall of the Emperor of the Iranians, and the murder of her brother Rostam. Sarvestani escaped from Iran to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and two years later flew to Sweden using a fake passport.
Sarvestani contacted the Empress (Who maintains two residences in Paris and Washington, DC) and informed her that she was in the process of making a film about Iran, the Iranian Revolution, the regime of the late Shah, and Empress Farah’s life after her exile. opportunity and an unprecedented access, and invited Sarvestani to her mansion in Paris. But upon the Empress security personnel and entourage’s discovery of Sarvestani’s past, her support for the Khomeini’s revolution, and previous communist activities, Farah Diba Pahlavi shut down the filming of the documentary. However, the Empress changed her mind after watching a trailer of the documentary Sarvestani has sent her, and which convinced the Empress that her compatriot’s intention was NOT to “come after her” as she stated later, or to attack her personally. Empress Farah Diba Pahlavi liked the trailer and accepted to meet again with Sarvestani. It took the brilliant Iranian director almost 18 months to finish her film. A true and sincere friendship began to develop between the two women.
Basically, the documentary rotated around the daily life and routines of the Empress with absolute candor. To many who have watched the documentary around the world, “The Queen and I” was an eye-opener, for it gave the public a rare opportunity to know the real Farah Diba Pahlavi; a down-to-earth, loving, honest and warm woman. Even in certain scenes, the all mighty Empress shed tears upon revisiting passages from her life, the tomb of her husband in Cairo, and the death of her daughter in 2001.
Sarvestani told the media, “She liked the trailer, she said ok you can come back and film me again. As you can see in the film, I criticize her husband a lot but at the same time I was so curious about that woman. The film is not about the Shah, it is about Farah Pahlavi. We wish we could go back to Iran, it doesn't matter if she was former queen and married to a dictator, or if I was a communist, now we have the same problem, we have the same enemy.”

Sarvestani talking about the “Queen & I”, and Empress Farah.
At the Film Festival of Amsterdam, Mohammad Abdi caught up with Nahid Persson Sarvestani and talked about her film. Sarvestani said, “We created the revolution, and then these people took over—and now here they are interrogating someone like me who was against the Shah. They made me sign some piece of paper and write that I would never again make a film on Iran. I had no choice but to sign in order to get out of there and return to Sweden.
However, in that kind of situation, whatever it is they force me to sign, you can be sure I’m going to do the exact opposite. When they said I am not allowed to make a film on Iran and called me taghuti, a derogatory word for a sympathizer of the Shah, I said, “Fine, then I will make a film on taghut.” When I returned to Sweden, I attempted to contact the exiled former queen, Farah Pahlavi. First, I talked to her secretary and finally, after four months, she herself telephoned and said I would be allowed to call on her in Paris.”-Source Gozaar.
Here is an excerpt from their discussion, verbatim (Unedited).
Abdi: The reluctance both of you about meeting, and your growing acceptance of Farah Pahlavi, became the basis of the film. Did you get the idea of making this the story of the film after you had begun shooting, or did you intend from the start to make the process of creating the film itself part of the story?
Sarvestani: The idea slowly grew as we were making the film. We were two people who, in the past, had been hostile to each other, in opposite camps. But suddenly, both of us were fellow Iranian refugees; both had children and both had lost a loved one. I had hesitations during the whole time that we were filming about whether making this film was such a good idea after all, and what my old anti-Shah friends were going to say.
Even in certain scenes, the all mighty Empress shed tears upon revisiting passages from her life, the tomb of her husband in Cairo, and the death of her daughter in 2001.
Sarvestani told the media, “She liked the trailer, she said ok you can come back and film me again. As you can see in the film, I criticize her husband a lot but at the same time I was so curious about that woman. The film is not about the Shah, it is about Farah Pahlavi. We wish we could go back to Iran, it doesn't matter if she was former queen and married to a dictator, or if I was a communist, now we have the same problem, we have the same enemy.”
Sarvestani talking about the “Queen & I”, and Empress Farah.At the Film Festival of Amsterdam, Mohammad Abdi caught up with Nahid Persson Sarvestani and talked about her film. Sarvestani said, “We created the revolution, and then these people took over—and now here they are interrogating someone like me who was against the Shah. They made me sign some piece of paper and write that I would never again make a film on Iran. I had no choice but to sign in order to get out of there and return to Sweden.However, in that kind of situation, whatever it is they force me to sign, you can be sure I’m going to do the exact opposite. When they said I am not allowed to make a film on Iran and called me taghuti, a derogatory word for a sympathizer of the Shah, I said, “Fine, then I will make a film on taghut.” When I returned to Sweden, I attempted to contact the exiled former queen, Farah Pahlavi. First, I talked to her secretary and finally, after four months, she herself telephoned and said I would be allowed to call on her in Paris.”-Source Gozaar.
Here is an excerpt from their discussion, verbatim (Unedited).
Abdi: The reluctance both of you about meeting, and your growing acceptance of Farah Pahlavi, became the basis of the film. Did you get the idea of making this the story of the film after you had begun shooting, or did you intend from the start to make the process of creating the film itself part of the story?
Sarvestani: The idea slowly grew as we were making the film. We were two people who, in the past, had been hostile to each other, in opposite camps. But suddenly, both of us were fellow Iranian refugees; both had children and both had lost a loved one. I had hesitations during the whole time that we were filming about whether making this film was such a good idea after all, and what my old anti-Shah friends were going to say.
I had a lot of questions I wanted to ask the queen about things the Shah had done but I didn’t have the courage. Every day, I thought this would be the day I would bring up the criticisms I had about the Shah, but the minute I’d see her and the way she was so kind and pleasant to be with…as we became close, it became difficult to ask these things. But these questions do finally come up at the end of the film.
Asking Sarvestani about Farah Pahlavi’s reaction? Sarvestani said, “The first time I showed her the film was at my home in Sweden.
I invited her to see the still unfinished two-hour film. There were parts of it she didn’t like, since I had said things about her husband. Nevertheless, she said, “This is your film, you are a filmmaker and I must accept that these are your words.” She didn’t like some of the parts in which she spoke, and I respected her wishes and removed them—this is what I do for anyone with whom I work. In the end, I made the film one and a half hours and showed it to her again. She was very happy with it. But she worries what people will say, just as I do. Aside from the principal character of the film, you make the narration very personal: you yourself are an important part of the story as a whole, maybe the most important part. Is it a valid criticism to say that, instead of Farah Pahlavi, it is you who have become the central personage of the film? Alright, say I am, what’s the problem? I feel we are both together. That is to say, it is about two women, two women who are in exile. I’ve mostly shown her life; however, the thoughts are mainly mine.”Did Sarvestani change her original impression of Farah Pahlavi after meeting with her and making the film?
Sarvestani told Abdi, “To tell you the truth, I didn’t really have much of a preconception of her. Thirty years ago when the revolution happened, I was very young. I used to see her on television and I never got to know her up close. For us young people and children, she was a distant dream. But when I saw her, I recognized her. And as I got to know her, we grew closer and each of us had respect for the other—as two women, as two human beings. It seems to me that one point that is absent from your film is the question about Farah Pahlavi’s sympathies for the European student movements, which could be a connecting link between the two of you, seeing as you used to be a leftist activist. I had heard from many people that when she was a student, Farah Pahlavi had leftist leanings but that after her marriage to the Shah, she had to cut off relations with her close friends. I asked her jokingly about these things, and she said, “No, it was not that way.”
I myself was a leftist—I mean, I still am and I want everyone to have the same rights. I don’t think she would want anything other than this either. She is a caring person and sympathetic to others. The two of us are very similar. And so it was very hard for me to find fault with her. Source: Gozaar.
For her films, Nahid Persson Sarvestani received numerous awards, to name a few: “Prostitution behind the Veil” received an International Emmy nomination, The Crystal Award (Kristallen) by SVT (Swedish State Television), the Golden Dragon at the Kraków Film Festival, the Golden Scarab (Guldbaggen) by the Swedish Film Institute in 2005, and the Best International News Documentary at the TV-festival 2005 in Monte Carlo.
And “The Last Days of Life” received the Swedish Cancer Foundation's (Cancerfondens) Journalist Prize in 2002.
For the Record: As Empress, Farah Pahlavi pursued her interests in social work, the emancipation of women, sport and art. Most of her time was devoted to the promotion of social welfare and culture, and she was patron of 24 educational, health, cultural and charity organizations.
In addition to supervising the work of these organizations in Tehran the Empress paid frequent visits to even the most remote parts of Iran to obtain first-hand knowledge of the life and aspirations of farmers and ordinary people. Empress Farah's deep interest and personal involvement in the arts have been largely responsible for Iran's many cultural movements and her frequent visits to art exhibitions and performances gave fresh incentive to all Iranian artistic activities.
During her reign, women played an increasingly important role in public life. Parliament deputies, senators, ministers, ambassador, lawyers, judges etc., women were in all high national and local instances and occupied important positions in all areas of the administration. Her Imperial Majesty supported young Iranian artists through her personal endeavors, and was a driving force behind a number of specialized art museums and other projects to preserve and publicize ancient and traditional art and architecture.