Gozaran – Time Passing (2011)

Directed by: Frank Scheffer | 90 minutes | documentary

Iranian Nader Mashayekhi has only one dream. The conductor and composer, who lives in Vienna, wants nothing more than to return to his native country to introduce modern classical music. When he is asked to lead the Tehran Symphony Orchestra in 2005, he does not have to think twice and returns to Iran. The assignment turns out to be an enormous challenge: artists in Iran are having a hard time due to the strict censorship. After the elections in 2009 it is impossible for Nader and his orchestra to continue working and the musician is forced to return to Vienna with an illusion poorer. In the documentary ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’, Nader Mashayekhi looks back on this turbulent period in his life.

Responsible for ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ is the Dutch director Frank Scheffer, whose CV already features a range of musical documentaries. What strikes you from the first second about this documentary, which premiered at IDFA 2011, is the enormously sober atmosphere. Combine this with the fairly gloomy classical music that is continuously present and you understand that ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ (logically) does not paint a very cheerful picture. The sometimes very slow pace at which history takes place and the many philosophical quotes that fill the documentary, make the occasionally moving retrospective on Nader’s life certainly not equally attractive to everyone.

But give ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ a chance and you will see that Frank Scheffer has indeed chosen an interesting subject and has developed it fascinatingly. Nor has it become a political statement at all. Because although a lot has happened in the political field, the maker has deliberately chosen not to pay any attention to this. The focus is on the mostly female artists with whom Nader Mashayekhi collaborates. As one of these artists points out in the documentary, women in Iran have a hard enough time as it is. But being a female artist is something that is almost taboo in this Islamic country and ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ shows how unique and daring is the goal that Nader Mashayekhi is trying to achieve. The film also shows how Nader tries to give a Persian touch to classical Western music and how difficult it is to introduce Western music in anti-Western Iran.

It is this brave and captivating theme that sets the film apart from other documentaries or biographies. The fact is that ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ will not appeal to a large audience. For a large group, this artistic retrospective on the unrealized dream of this Iranian composer might be just a little too uninteresting and maybe even a little boring. But fans of beautifully shot documentaries about passionate people and classical music, on the other hand, should definitely give ‘Gazaran – Time Passing’ a chance: they won’t be disappointed.