Terrorist suspect’s documentary explores Iranian-American heritage
By Michael Knox, mknox@modernfilmzine.com
A Muslim-American filmmaker detained by American Homeland Security has turned his story into a 70 minute documentary that explores the ordeal he endured as a terrorist suspect after returning from Iran where he filmed people interested in break-dancing.
Justin Mashouf’s film, “Warring Factions,” began filming in April 2007, according to a news release. Mashouf wanted to capture his experiences as a multi-ethnic Iranian American exploring his Muslim identity in a post 9/11 world, the release states.
In the wake of rising international tensions, he is cornered into answering the question, “Where is your loyalty, America or Iran?” Shot in both countries, Mashouf’s journey throughout the film uses his love for break dancing as a way of bridging an American culture with Iranian youth. Additionally, he becomes a student of the traditional Iranian martial art of “Varzesh Bastani” and seeks to understand the sentiments of the religious conservative generation of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The film documents Mashouf’s journey to Iran to find break dancers in Tehran and shed light on the rising tensions between Iran and the US. On the filmmaker’s journey home, he finds himself detained by American Homeland Security, having his footage confiscated by authorities.
By combining documentary and studio reenactments, Mashouf looks at the blurring of world borders, and the looming threat of another war in the Middle East.
The film’s Web site states, “As forces in American government and media have fueled the perception of an unavoidable war with Iran, Warring Factions is a call to (dis)arms. An American-born Iranian break-dancer finds cultural awakening by exploring his multi-ethnic roots. Faced with dual nationality in two conflicting countries, he travels to Iran to examine the political issues first-hand while exploring his cultural identity with a group of Iranian b-boys. By combining documentary and studio reenactments, ‘Warring Factions’ looks at the blurring of world borders, and the looming threat of another war in the Middle East.”
Mashouf’ said on the www.warringfactions.com Web site that his experience his film effected the way he felt about his cultural identity.
“The episode with Homeland Security gave me a taste of the War on Terror in a way I would have never expected and made me a suspect of terrorism in the country of my birth,” he said. “Before that experience I felt I had a more concrete position in my American identity but [that incident] definitely made me question how accepted Muslims and Iranians are in America. I try to not let what happened get in the way of how I feel about the US, but the truth is that what happened to me is happening to hundreds of other Muslims in the US and no one seems to care.”
Mashouf said that his training in the traditional Iranian martial art of “Varzesh Bastani” gave him a better cultural understanding of Iranians.
“Iran has been a nation that has purged itself of foreign invaders and saved itself from destruction many times in its history,” he said in an interview posted on the Web site. “The spirit of this phenomenon must remain in the cultural fabric of Iranians for our preservation.”
