By Star Davis
We at UCAN! Magazine love the unique and unusual. With that in mind, we found a film that we think you’ll be interested in. It’s a short film out of Iran, called THE HOSE written and directed by Mansour Forouzesh. THE HOSE is about Nobari, an elementary school teacher who believes the most effective way to educate his students is by punishing them. However, being open to new ideas, Nobari does some research and realizes his methods may not be the most applicable He decides to make a change. He takes particular interest in Shalbaf, a young boy with a speech impediment. Nobari believes that this child is the perfect opportunity to practice his new teaching techniques. The results are sad and disturbing. At the very least, Western parents would be outraged.
“When I was a student, we were at a bad period because of the war with Iraq. It had just finished, and human relations were greatly affected,” Mansour explains. It’s not hard to imagine how devastating a war, up close, could be to both adults and children alike “We saw many strange things in adult behaviors, but the greatest problem from that war was financial,” he continues. It is fact that financial hardship can bring out the worst in human beings. This principle applies to people anywhere in the world The story idea for THE HOSE came from when Mansour was an elementary student himself. One day the teacher some of the boys in the class. Administrators reacted swiftly “The real story is different from the film. We no longer saw this teacher. He had gone from our school” Mansour strongly believes that one negative effect of war was that physical punishment was promoted in schools and used as the first resort to deter students from misbehaving “I believe this, the war was the reason. Iranian people are very kind, but in that era, almost every family had a martyr or someone who was disabled” he explains. The loss of a loved one, coupled with financial hardship could turn even the nicest person into a strange and uncontrollable mental state. “This situation has meant that people are tired and exhausted from the stress of financial difficulties of a war torn society, so they do not be have rationally.” So what is Mansour Forouzesh saying to us through this film? “I wanted to say that the most profound statement came from the disabled student. He actually taught the teacher.” Some viewers may disagree, but for these school boys being punished with a hose may not be the worst thing that could happen.
