Iran
has elections every four years in which all citizens sixteen
years of age and above are entitled to vote in a secret ballot
for two candidates from a list of several presidential aspirants.
The current liberalization trend in Iran is due to careful
selection by voters of the most progressive candidate, though
laws of the parliament and actions of the executive branch
are subject to veto by the council of ayatollahs. However,
not everyone in Iran votes. The Iranian film Secret
Ballot (Raye makhfi), directed by Babak
Payami, is at once an effort to increased public consciousness
about the need to vote and an explanation for nonvoting. The
film takes place on the isolated desert island of Kish in
the Persian Gulf. An airplane drops a box, which contains
voting instructions, ballots, and a ballot box. Soon, a motorboat
deposits a female election official (played by Nassim Abdi)
on the shore; her job is to collect votes from various villages.
In other words, instead of a central polling location for
the district to which voters must travel, her job is a kind
of affirmative action for voters: She brings the ballots and
ballot box to the voters, albeit with the reluctant aid of
a vehicle driven by a member of the border patrol (played
by Cyrus Abidi) stationed where she landed. Since few citizens
in the remote area have ever voted before, her first task
is to provide some civic education about the way in which
elections enable progress. Then, if she persuades potential
voters that they can only have their voice heard regarding
their problems by casting ballots, they present their identification
cards, receive and mark ballots, and deposit their votes in
the ballot box. The film, thus, follows the common formula
of a road picture; that is, filmviewers see a slice of life
in rural Iran while learning about the pervasive lack of political
consciousness in the countryside. Many encounters are quite
amusing, as innocent remarks from those whom she meets raise
profound questions about whether Iran is really a democracy
despite the election ritual. For example, the first voter
objects when the border patrol officer appears to interfere
in his choice of candidates; he demands to cast a secret ballot
and to have the officer stop brandishing his rifle. In another
case, a merchant refuses to vote unless the election official
first buys something from him. In yet another case, women
are fearful of voting without the permission of their husbands,
who are out fishing. In a town where the men are at a cemetery,
women are banned from the cemetery, so the election official
cannot gain admission to the men. Those who do not speak Farsi
are unable to read the ballots and thus disfranchised. When
she stops at a mine, the equipment is too noisy for the lone
worker to hear what she has to say, and he is just too busy
to vote, perhaps implying that Iran should have elections
on a national holiday, similar to many other countries. Finally,
the border patrol officer drives her back to the place where
a boat is supposed to pick her up at 5:30 P.M. At first dumbfounded
that a female would be assigned such a job, he gradually grows
to like her for her charm and persistence. While waiting,
he votes, whereupon she notes that he has voted for her instead
of selecting from the list of candidates. His amusing riposte
is that he thought that voting was by secret ballot. Then
an airplane lands to pick her up so that the votes will arrive
in time to be counted. The film, thus, contains an eloquent
plea for democracy to work through a more perfect election
system. Accordingly, the Political Film Society has nominated
Secret Ballot for an award as best
film of 2002 promoting democracy. MH
I
want to comment on this film
