Gilgamesh, Asghar Farhadi and the Regret of an Enkidu Trilogy

In the age of artificial intelligence, Gilgamesh is no longer the king on the throne; rather, Enkidu and the idea will be the ruler. Even at the end of the Gilgamesh epic, we clearly see that after Enkidu's death, Gilgamesh metaphorically confronts death and his own end, and mourns him in a remarkable way.

Ambassador Arjan; Ahmad Amani - "Parallel stories" is a well-made film, at the level of international standards and attractive; It is safe to say that it is Farhadi's most technical film. But this stunning executive power makes the incompleteness of his narrative more painful. Farhadi has created an attractive and elaborate world, but its brilliant ideas do not get a chance to stand up. It is not a lack of ideas; There is an abundance of ideas that give way to each other before reaching depth. The result is a strange paradox: a well-made film that can leave the viewer at the end, not with a living question, but with a sense of incompleteness.

Three ideas, above all, attract attention in the film.

First, the author's memory of the father who, after the separation, buys an apartment opposite the mother's new house; Apparently for the children to be close to the mother, but actually to watch the life of the woman he lost. He goes to his room every night and sees the life of his mother and the man who destroyed the family in his eyes. This is not just the memory of betrayal; The story is about a person who can't get over the loss and replaces the lost relationship with the closeness of a place. For him, the window is both a possibility to see and a prison.

Second, Nita's discovery about the sound of footsteps: after working in the sound reproduction studio, she finds out that each person has their own walking sound; It's as if steps also have a personality. What a wonderful idea: people are heard before they are seen. Sound can be a presence signature, but that same signature can be recreated in the studio. So what seems to be a sign of reality may be the product of artistic forgery. The work of the characters in making cinematic sounds, in this way, is linked to the main problem of the film, that is, the relationship between the constructed and the real.

Third, and perhaps most important, is the story that spills over into the lives of its subjects. The author imagines relationships from behind the window; In fact, his story has nothing to do with reality: the author's story is the narration of a woman and two men and the falling in love and betrayal between these three in the studio; But in the studio, we are facing two brothers and a woman who have no romantic relationship or betrayal between them. But when the manuscript reaches the hands of real people, the imagination is no longer confined to the paper. What was not real at first can produce suspicion and reaction when read. The story doesn't just represent the world; interferes with it.

This is where Nietzsche can be remembered in the book "Genealogy of Morals": the ascetic priest first wounds to play the role of a doctor. Of course, the author of the film should not be directly confused with Reverend Nietzsche; The relationship between the two is a mechanism through which interpretation can intensify suffering. Narrative brings a wound into life and people then see the world through the lens of that wound.

The question is: why in "parallel stories" do we face pure ideas more than their full realization?

To explain this distance, we can take help from the Gilgamesh epic.

In the epic, Gilgamesh goes to battle Khumbaba, the mighty guardian of the wild, but is unable to defeat him on his own. Enkidu, who came from the wild world and joined human life, accompanies Gilgamesh. Those two kill Khumbaba; But after the victory, the gods decree Enkidu's death. Gilgamesh, grieving his friend, faces the truth of his death.

In this metaphorical reading, Gilgamesh is the ability to perform the work: skill, facility, mastery and power to make. Enkidu is a creative idea that must come out of the raw state and live in the narrative. Khumbaba is also the knot of the story and the resistance of the issue that the work wants to face; That human complexity and complexity that is not defeated by simply "proposing" and "showing skills".

Of course, idea and implementation are not two completely separate realms. An audio or video selection can also be the idea itself. The meaning is that executive power, no matter how great, is not enough without cultivating human experience.

Development is where an idea transforms from an attractive design into a living force.

"Parallel Stories" in this sense is a powerful Gilgamesh with three potential Enkidus. But none of them get enough time to emerge. The film shows their faces, without bringing all their strength into the field. Failure comes not from lack of imagination, but from its failure.

The epic of Gilgamesh finds a new meaning in the horizon of artificial intelligence. Let's suppose that one day it is possible to produce a visually and technically very convincing film by giving a script and detailed instructions. In that case, part of Gilgamesh's power will become more accessible. But the question remains: what should be built, why and to what extent? That is exactly the problem of Enkidu.

The problem is that producing an idea is not the same as nurturing it; Just as creating an impressive image does not necessarily mean creating a lasting experience.

More precisely, in the age of artificial intelligence, Gilgamesh is no longer the king sitting on the throne, but it is Enkidu and Idea who will rule. Even at the end of the epic of Gilgamesh, we clearly see that after the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh metaphorically faces his death and end and mourns his death.

Undoubtedly, it is enlightening to compare the parallel stories with the movie "Chershanbesuri". That film, in this reading, has a clear dramatic focus and expands doubt, betrayal, fear, and judgment around that focus. Even if we think of "Parallel Stories" as more ambitious in execution, "Chershanbesuri" has a full-fledged Enkidu: an idea that grows in the situations and decisions of the characters, rather than just being introduced.

Perhaps a more appropriate form of "parallel stories" would be to make a trilogy, just like Kieslowski's trilogy; Not a remake of "Blue, White, Red", but three independent and related films, each with its own playground. The importance of Kieslowski's model lies in this independence along with the connection: three films that each create their own narrative world, but together open a common horizon. In fact, "parallel stories" is a victim of insufficient time to tell these three powerful ideas at the heart of the film.

A film about looking and captivity in loss; One about voice, identity and reconstruction of presence; And the other about imagination that pollutes and transforms reality.

In such a trilogy, each idea had a chance to develop in an independent story; Characters, relationships and consequences are formed and come to an end. Then these three Enkidus, instead of not appearing in the limited time of a film, could each stand next to Farhadi's Gilgamesh.

The regret of "Parallel Stories" is exactly this: Farhadi brought three powerful Enkidus to the field, but did not provide the opportunity to fully accompany them. In the metaphor of this criticism, Khumbaba wins not because of Gilgamesh's weakness, but because of the incompleteness of his pact with Enkidu.

Although "Parallel Stories" is undoubtedly a spectacular, attractive and powerful film in terms of visuals and production, perhaps if it was made in the form of a trilogy, we would now be faced with world-class works, such as the "Blue, White, Red" trilogy and the "Ten Commandments" collection by Christof Kislovsky, from a thoughtful Iranian artist.

That unmade trilogy is still imaginary: if each of these three ideas had the opportunity to find the sound of their footsteps, what kind of world could Farhadi create?