Tehran: The 25th Hour
Adolph Eichmann: The Specialist
-
Tehran: The 25th Hour
Directed by Seifolla Samadian.
Iran, 1999, video, color, 22 min.
Farsi with English subtitles.
On November 29, 1998, moments after the Iranian National Football Team qualified as the 32nd team in the World Cup, the usually quiet streets of Tehran were transformed into seas of joy as people united to celebrate their nation’s sporting victory. In his simple but compelling portrait, Samadian captures the events that temporarily transformed life in this modern Iranian city on a day that would come to be known as "Sweet Saturday." The Iranian government tried to ban this work because of its representation of women celebrating in an "unIslamic" fashion.
In its straightforward, matter-of-fact presentation, The Specialist says more about the true horror of the Holocaust than many more explicit or dramatic accounts. Edited together from more than 500 hours of footage, the film is a record of the trial of Adolph Eichmann, the chief of SS transportation who was largely responsible for the logistics of the "Final Solution." Much more than a mere summary of the trial, The Specialist captures the terrifying ordinariness—and seeming indifference—of the face of evil, as well as the rage, sorrow, and bewilderment of the witnesses testifying against one of the key figures of the Third Reich.