Cheney: 'We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon'

I love Iranian cinema! Like everybody else who's ever seen it, I worship "The White Baloon."

I also love "Children of Heaven," Mohsen Makhmalbaf's "Gabbeh," (in which people depicted on a woven tapestry emerge to tell their stories), the stunning "Kandahar," the elegiac "Taste of Cherry" and "The Wind Will Carry Us." There are many, many others I have seen and loved.

It is so thrilling and inspiring to watch the results of artists creating even under the most oppressive of regimes. It is heartening to know that there will always be people who strive to tell the stories of ordinary citizens, and to remind us of the gifts and talents that so many humans who live under the hand of insane leaders possess. When one speaks of a people only by the name of the country in which they had no choice but to be born, it's often a good idea to look at the art that has managed to emerge there and to remember that "Iran" represents to much more than a brand name, it represents real, breathing, creative people.

While it's a good idea to keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of insane leaders, the citizens of other countries with wackjobs in power might like to try to take a look at the art that the citizens living there have managed to create. Take US citizens under De Facto President Cheney, for instance.

Does anybody else here have favorite Iranian films?

Updated On: 10/28/07 at 12:41 PM