Halting and Understanding Thin Things
We woke up one morning and began to live a life that would perhaps remind us of a legend if we thought about it beforehand. Our daily routine was disrupted. Our habits turned into nostalgia hanging in the past. Everything happened in an instant! Without a plan, without a program. Maybe we were left with a feeling of helplessness. Yes, I am talking about the COVID-19 virus outbreak that has affected the world, and without exception, we cannot spend a day without talking about it. I guess you are not surprised.
In this article, I don't want to make assumptions about how the virus came to be, nor do I want to analyze the speed of its spread. These days when everything slows down and becomes invisible, I want to talk about the most visible thing, the family, through the movie 'Gold and Copper'.
Gold and Copper
A 2011 Iranian film about Seyyed Reza and his family. Seyyed Reza is a madrasa student studying religious sciences. He has spent most of his life studying in different cities. He and his wife Zahra Sadat have a daughter (Atife) and a son (Amir Ali) from their 8-year marriage. The film is about Seyyed Reza's days in Tehran, where he comes with his family to take moral lessons from a well-known master. Seyyed Reza's whole world is his lessons and books. He studies, reads, and writes day and night to become a good scholar. His wife Zahra Sadat is shouldering the entire burden of the family in this process. She weaves carpets for the household, takes care of her children's home and school needs, and even checks Seyyed Reza's hospital appointments. She also has a kind spirit. She quickly wins the heart of her next-door neighbor Ayda, who has Down syndrome.
At the beginning of the movie, when Seyyid Reza goes to a bookstore to look for an old book, the bookseller tells him that the book he is looking for is very old, so there is a high probability that he will not be able to find it, and asks him the subject of the book. When he receives the answer "Morality", he replies as follows: "Morality... Look up there, maybe you will find it." Here is a quote that summarizes exactly what Seyyed Reza will experience. Because a difficult process in his life will teach him that he must get out of his world and look upwards.
In time, Zahra Sadat begins to complain of numb fingers and double vision, but Seyyed Reza, thinking that this is due to fatigue, does not pay much attention to it. The complaints recur 2-3 times; Seyyed Reza does not see and perhaps cannot see. Because his world is too busy to see other worlds. After her last attack, Zahra Sadat was hospitalized and admitted with suspected MS. The whole world is suddenly turned upside down for Seyyed Reza. Here, the audience witnesses how mortality and uncertainty enter a person's life without knocking on the door. The days without Zehra Sadat are also the beginning of a kind of life education for Seyyid Reza. One day, still believing that he will continue his studies, he takes his young son with him and goes to an ethics class. However, he was criticized for disrespecting the madrasa. Sayyid would not be able to attend moral lessons for a long time. This lesson ends with the following subtle message: "Accumulating knowledge upon knowledge, darkness upon darkness... Do not think that we should first accumulate knowledge and then take steps. If you are heavy, you cannot take a step. Instead of accumulating more, do more."
Seyyed Reza now has to take the entire burden of the household. It is time for him to be a close witness to what is going on in the world of his wife and children. He tries to cook, he prepares his children for school, and he looks into the eyes of his longing children.
He looks into their eyes, as he stays awake at night weaving carpets to make ends meet, trying to make up for the lack of both a mother and a father left behind by Zehra Sadat.
In these parts of the movie, the audience is left with the following questions: How does Sayyid Reza cope with this process? How does he manage to survive in Tehran, where he came to study with great ambition and determination when he is unable to continue his studies and his life partner, whom he takes care of, loses his ability to move in front of his eyes?
Silence
Sayyid Reza had a life that he missed due to the noise of the outside world as he ran from place to place for years to learn knowledge, moving from one book to another. To give voice to his knowledge, which has been cut off from life and left between the pages, he must first go through a phase of silence. This process he went through gave Sayyid the gift of silence that would help him discover his real life. As he paid attention to what was going on around him, he began to nourish his inner realm, which had been silenced by the noise of the outside world. He heard the voice of his true source, the power of patience and struggle.
'We must go out into silence', Kemal Sayar says, 'We must go out into silence from the noise of the world. To the serenity of the soul, from the hum of things. To let someone else's words travel through us. To touch other souls. To be a shadow wandering among the good souls, free from our existence. We need to see silence as healing."
Seyyed Reza's realization of the meaning of Zahra's presence in Zahra's absence is perhaps a consequence of this silence.
Family and care
It is the product of Seyyid Reza's consciousness, distilled from his life, that makes him say to his wife, who expresses her sorrow by feeling guilty when she learns that he cannot go to class, "From now on, my classes will be at home with you." Every night, Seyyid Reza would chat with his daughter Atıfe while she slept. Although these conversations make Zehra feel her sorrow more deeply, they remind her of the fact that they are a family and increase their strength to struggle as a family.
Let us listen to Sayar at this point. "Attention is warm and compassionate, allowing the best possibilities to blossom. Grace and kindness flourish and grow with attention. The most beautiful moments of our lives are when we are there with our whole soul."
Seyyed Reza and his family make us believe that it is possible to rebuild a family relationship with care and attention. Yes, the soul heals as it bandages the wounds of the other soul.
Watching this movie, which "engraves in our hearts how care and solidarity can turn copper into gold," maybe "a good source of hope for these difficult times we are going through."