It all started with two guys having the ambition to create a movie as successful as Flaherty's "Nanook of the North". One of the two guys was Merian Cooper: a passionate promoter in both aviation and movie industry, a bomber pilot in WWI, twice shot down in fight. The other was Ernest Schoedsack: during the WWI a cameraman on the front, recording infantry actions under shell fire. The two had met for the first time in Poland, during the war with Soviet Russia. They would meet again in the early 20's and start collaborating in making movies. Meanwhile Merian Cooper had been made prisoner by the Red Army and managed to escape.
Flaherty had gone to the Eskimo. Cooper and Schoedsack set their target to Kurdistan. The expedition started in October 1923 in Angora (today's Ankara). There was a fellow-traveler with them: journalist Marguerite Harrison (she too had the taste for danger in her DNA: risky missions in Germany, Russia Japan, China, imprisoned for a period in Soviet Russia).
It was during the expedition that they decided to go further, to reach a nomadic community of Bakhtiari, some place in central Persia, and to follow them in their seasonal migration in search of grass for their herds.
Twice a year the Bakhtiari have to migrate with their animals, once Eastward, then Westward, between their summer and winter quarters. That means crossing the Kārun river (some identify it with Pishon, one of the four rivers of Eden, as mentioned in Genesis) and escalating Zard-Kuh, the highest peak of the Zagros Mountains. By those times there were no bridges over the river, and all people were barefoot. They had to pass this way over the heavy snowed mountain. As for crossing the river, the animals had to swim, of course many of them were drowning. There were about 50,000 people and half a million animals.
The decision of Cooper, Schoedsack and Harrison to join the community of Bakhtiari proved fortunate: by filming their journey they created a masterpiece.
The movie has two distinct parts. Firstly it chronicles the trip from Angora towards Kurdistan, with a picturesque description of a caravanserai, and some other interesting moments, like the sudden meeting with a troupe of desert police, occasion for the filmmakers to shot a surreal scene with the policemen executing a complicate ballet while on their horses! But it is the second part of the movie that is a masterpiece: simply filming the journey of barefoot people with their animals across the river and over the mountain transmits a great epic sense. It is there the whole drama of this ethnicity struggling for life, rendered with simplicity and greatness.
Many critics have compared "Grass" with "Nanook", giving to the work of Flaherty a better mark, and obviously the merit of having been the first. I found an interesting remark in an essay by Richard Griffith (who was a curator at MoMA Film Library between 1951 - 1965): "Flaherty was an explorer filming a population he knew, while Cooper and Schoedsack were adventurers attracted by the unknown".
The images in "Nanook" could be more skillful worked, while what you see in "Grass" is the "real thing": the epic on the screen is "live".
I watched Grass on Netflix and I give total credit to its admirers: this movie is fascinating.
The copy available on Netflix includes some evocative pieces of Iranian music, composed and performed by Gholam Hosain Janati-Ataie (santur and daf), Kavous Shirzadian (tar, tombak and oud) and Amir Ali Vahabzadegan (Turkish tambur, setar, dohol, daf and voice). I found this very touching: a tribute paid to a courageous community who struggles with nature for their life. Now their herds are carried in trucks and they are no more barefoot, still it's hard.
Flaherty had gone to the Eskimo. Cooper and Schoedsack set their target to Kurdistan. The expedition started in October 1923 in Angora (today's Ankara). There was a fellow-traveler with them: journalist Marguerite Harrison (she too had the taste for danger in her DNA: risky missions in Germany, Russia Japan, China, imprisoned for a period in Soviet Russia).
It was during the expedition that they decided to go further, to reach a nomadic community of Bakhtiari, some place in central Persia, and to follow them in their seasonal migration in search of grass for their herds.
Twice a year the Bakhtiari have to migrate with their animals, once Eastward, then Westward, between their summer and winter quarters. That means crossing the Kārun river (some identify it with Pishon, one of the four rivers of Eden, as mentioned in Genesis) and escalating Zard-Kuh, the highest peak of the Zagros Mountains. By those times there were no bridges over the river, and all people were barefoot. They had to pass this way over the heavy snowed mountain. As for crossing the river, the animals had to swim, of course many of them were drowning. There were about 50,000 people and half a million animals.
The decision of Cooper, Schoedsack and Harrison to join the community of Bakhtiari proved fortunate: by filming their journey they created a masterpiece.
The movie has two distinct parts. Firstly it chronicles the trip from Angora towards Kurdistan, with a picturesque description of a caravanserai, and some other interesting moments, like the sudden meeting with a troupe of desert police, occasion for the filmmakers to shot a surreal scene with the policemen executing a complicate ballet while on their horses! But it is the second part of the movie that is a masterpiece: simply filming the journey of barefoot people with their animals across the river and over the mountain transmits a great epic sense. It is there the whole drama of this ethnicity struggling for life, rendered with simplicity and greatness.
Many critics have compared "Grass" with "Nanook", giving to the work of Flaherty a better mark, and obviously the merit of having been the first. I found an interesting remark in an essay by Richard Griffith (who was a curator at MoMA Film Library between 1951 - 1965): "Flaherty was an explorer filming a population he knew, while Cooper and Schoedsack were adventurers attracted by the unknown".
The images in "Nanook" could be more skillful worked, while what you see in "Grass" is the "real thing": the epic on the screen is "live".
I watched Grass on Netflix and I give total credit to its admirers: this movie is fascinating.
The copy available on Netflix includes some evocative pieces of Iranian music, composed and performed by Gholam Hosain Janati-Ataie (santur and daf), Kavous Shirzadian (tar, tombak and oud) and Amir Ali Vahabzadegan (Turkish tambur, setar, dohol, daf and voice). I found this very touching: a tribute paid to a courageous community who struggles with nature for their life. Now their herds are carried in trucks and they are no more barefoot, still it's hard.