For
this song, a fatwa issued against Iranian musician Shahin Najafi and a $100,000
bounty was placed on his head. You would almost think the Islamist Ayatollahs
have no sense of humor whatsoever. Frankly, after five years of living with
death threats, his is also running a little thin. Till Schauder documents
Najafi as he lives life under extreme circumstances in When God Sleeps (trailer here), which airs this Monday as part of the
current season of Independent Lens on
PBS.
In
“Ay Neghi!,” Najafi pointedly asks the 10th Imam why his brethren
are so preoccupied with trivial puritanical concerns, yet they tolerate
conspicuous public corruption of the highest order. To most Westerners, this
would be a rather mild and reasonable protest song, but it led to multiple
fatwas calling for his execution, as punishment for his alleged apostasy. At
this point, Najalfi’s international fame exploded.
Without
question, the best sequences of the doc chronicle Najafi’s early response to
the fatwas. Rightfully concerned for his safety, Najafi sought the protection
of the woefully under-prepared German police, who had him file a farcical complaint
against the ninety-year-old cleric who issued the initial death sentence. Much
more helpful is muckraking German journalist Günter Wallraff, who initially
sheltered Najafi in his fortified compound, as he had previously done for
Salman Rushdie.
Without
question, the best parts of the doc show how Najafi lives day-to-day as a
target of fatwas. Somewhat understandably, Schauder seems even more interested
in Najafi’s long-distance romance with Leili Bazargan, the granddaughter of
Mehdi Bazargan, the interim Prime Minister of the Revolutionary Islamic government.
However, to play up the star-crossed nature of their relationship, Schauder
casts Bazargan as a theocratic hardliner, when he was arguably somewhat more
nuanced than that. For instance, he resigned his post in protest when the
American embassy was seized by students loyal to Khomeini.
However,
the third act really get awkward when Najafi tries to become an advocate and
humanitarian patron for the waves of immigrants washing into Germany, only to
find his band-members are alarmed by the increasingly aggressive behavior of
ostensive asylum-seekers receiving comp tickets to their shows. Reality can be
so inconvenient.
Najafi
is a worthy subject, whose experiences have much to say about the state of Iran
and the wider Islamic world. Yet, the doc’s lack of urgency seems very much at
odds with its subject matter. Frankly, When
God Sleeps should have been less observational and more chronologically-driven.
Schauder does not go out of his way to showcase Najafi’s music either, which
might frustrate his fans. Nevertheless, it is important to get his story out
there—and this is currently the only documentary about him. Recommended (especially
the first half) for general audiences, When
God Sleeps premieres on PBS’s Independent
Lens this coming Monday (4/2).
