The Silence Between Two Thoughts

The Silence Between Two Thoughts, Payami’s third feature, is a harsh, minimalist story about the dilemma of a people whose religious convictions are used to rule them with a stern hand. Babak Payami has a lot to say about the absurd cruelty of the way fundamentalists interpret the Islam as it suits them. In a remote village somewhere in the Iranian desert, two young women are executed. When the executioner is taking up position to kill the third woman, the local fundamentalist mullah stops him: the condemned woman is a virgin and executed virgins go straight to paradise. So he decides that the executioner has to marry his future victim on the spot. The executioner is ordered to sleep with her, she can then be shot. The man appointed executioner by the passing fundamentalists locks the woman up in his house, but doesn’t touch her. The man has his doubts. Just like the other villagers, who turn their backs on him.The negatives of the 35mm film were impounded by the Iranian authorities before the first festival screening in Venice. The film is now screened on video. With the support of the Hubert Bals Fund, Payami is now producing a 35mm film print.