Tehran Has No More Pomegranates!

Playing with fact and fiction to depict reality is a well-known stylistic device in the Iranian cinema. Massoud Bakhshi's Tehran Has No More Pomegranates also begins with the statement that all characters and events may seem real, but are in fact not true. By then, Bakhshi has already read aloud, in voice-over, his letter to the chairman of the Iranian film fund, stating that he has not been able to complete his documentary on Tehran for various reasons. Bakhshi treats us to an intelligently edited musical compilation of all the archive footage and the images he made for his city portrait over the past five years. From the city's foundation in 1241 BC (when exceptionally delicious pomegranates still grew there) via various oppressors; collective opium addiction; visits by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt ('You really have big oil wells'); the Islamic revolution; the explosive growth of the metropolis to the mountain of waste and the current transportation problem. Bakhshi ends with the list of most polluted cities that is topped off by Tehran.