If you ask me to build a wall around the mountains and the ocean, I will do it since this task will be completed some day. But I don't pray this way, knowing that it will never end.
Just outside Behshar, a city located in Mazandaran, Northern Iran, the Godars or Chulehs, a group of gypsies of Indian descent, make their home. The Godars, who number around three thousand households in this region, are musicians and performers. Koffar (Infidels), directed by Bahman Kiarostami, is the first filmic record of the Godars, their lives, and their efforts to maintain the independence of their culture.
Most Godar men play an instrument called the dotar, and some play other instruments--one of the most famous living ethnic kamancheh players, Taghi Katuli, is a Godar. Chuleh women sing and perform. The performances focus on religious themes, often centering on the rituals associated with death and mourning.
Godar do not find work easily--the men are sometimes invited to play at Muslim weddings, but this happens less and less frequently. They are very poor. Still they maintain their commitment to their art and to their age-old rituals, customs, and language. To survive they have taken up hunting wild boar, which they sell to non-Muslims. Because they have resisted conversion to Islam, they are ostracized and sometimes persecuted, which has made their existence more difficult and tenuous.
The Chulehs were nomads. They used burning logs to keep warm and their shacks were always filled with smoke. When they made love with their darkened and smoky bodies, they ended up having dark, ugly children!
In Koffar (Infidels), the Godar tell the ancient tales of their heritage, sing songs, and speak out about their poverty and disenchantment. This is an extremely rare glimpse into the art, lives, and livelihood of the Godars, whose culture may one day disappear in the tide of global cultural homogenization.
Come Muslims and kill me with a knife
Cut off my flesh and sell it to the villagers
Give out my flesh from village to village
Give less to others and more to my beloved!
Koffar (Infidels) features an original score by Reza Derakshani, a musician featured in the two-part documentary Kamancheh-Kesh.
For more information about this documentary, email us at
info@butimarproductions.org.
