Alienation and Political Trauma in Paris, Texas and Taste of Cherry

Paper by Marian Castro.

Texas, 1984. A long shot of a man walking through the desert, his clothes powdered with dirt and dust. He is holding an empty water jug, donning a red cap and a brown suit, his hair raggedy, his face confused and beard growing tangled and long. He is surrounded by stretches of the Southwest desert, desolate rock formations and mountains. Travis Henderson walks on, his face confused, yet determined.

Tehran, 1997. A man is driving through the raggedy outskirts of Iran. We see him driving with a sense of urgency in his searching eyes. He rolls down the window to talk to several men that he passes along the way, asking them questions, vaguely offering them a job that he does not specify. Many talk with him, but later disperse as he continues on. This man continues driving down the road. The camera remains in the passenger seat, offering the audience only a view of the window next to Mr. Badii. He drives on, still determined.

Amid the turbulent political landscapes of the late 20th century, Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders and Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry both utilize minimalist cinema to depict alienation and disillusionment in societies marked by national trauma of the era, illustrating the psychological effects of political upheaval in society. Both New German Cinema and Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema also reveal similarities that emphasize themes of identity, memory and loneliness through use of low-budget, minimalist filmmaking techniques such as contemplative long takes, use of non-professional actors and shooting on-location in rural areas. Political turbulence paving way to a collective societal collapse of mental health is something
that is especially relevant in today’s American political landscape. Analyzing how such polarizing political states affect a society, especially that of Reagan’s 1980s America and Post-Islamic Revolution Iran can help us better understand how cinematic expression works to illustrate alienation amid political upheaval today.

Post WW2, the German film industry grappled with ways to transform what once was a
medium for propaganda under Hitler’s regime to an outlet of creative expression and hope.
“Many German films of the period also react to the troubled history of the medium itself as the
prime Nazi propaganda tool” (Nowell-Smith 614). New German Cinema arose in the 1960s and
dwindled on into the early 1980s as a movement of young filmmakers aiming to produce
low-budget films that posed as critiques of society under their own Oberhausen Manifesto.
Heralded by names like Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbender, the
movement emphasized themes such as alienation, loneliness and dealing with “the outsider”
using minimalist filmmaking techniques. Paris, Texas (1985) is a film by Wim Wenders that
displays various traits of New German Cinema. This film utilizes various minimalist techniques
such as long takes and use of silence that depict contemplation within the characters, on-location
shooting in Texas, natural lighting of the sun and indoor spaces as well as mundane, natural
dialogue between characters. It paints Wenders’ vision of America through the perspective of an
outsider, through the lens of an amnesiac man who seems to be learning the ropes of what his life
used to be amid a vintage Americana landscape.

Identity, memory and loneliness also were prominent features of Post-Iranian Revolution
cinema, which garnered popularity in the mid-1980s and onward. Amid the replacement of Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government and with Ruhollah Khomeini’s Islamic state, this film
movement worked under the censorship of the new Islamic Republic of Iran, which paved the
way for a plethora of interesting ideas that were however, under strict supervision on behalf of
the Khomeini administration. Abbas Kiarostami, Jafar Panahi and Mohsen Makhmabalf were
among the prominent filmmakers of the era. Post-Iranian Cinema emphasizes philosophical
themes that deal with the meaning of life and connection. Its minimalist filmmaking techniques
are similar to that of New German Cinema and its similarities in themes consist of themes like
loneliness, alienation, search for meaning. In Taste of Cherry, there is use of natural lighting as
Mr. Badii drives up and down the village, natural flowing dialogue between him and all the men
he meets, use of non-professional actors such as Hosseein Nori (the seminarian) and
Abdolrahman Bagheri (Mr. Bagheri), shooting on-location in the hills of Tehran and total
absence of artistic editing.

However, the two movements also differ in some ways such as Post-Iranian Revolution
Cinema being a lot more influenced by current political censorship in its time whereas New
German Cinema was more affected by influence of the past and the Nazi regime’s propaganda.
The middle east has always been colored with political unrest, from Egypt to Palestine. The first
intifada in Gaza began in the late 1980s with “clashes continuing into the early 1990s” (The
Economist). “The breakthrough for Iranian New Wave was Dariush Mehrjui’s second feature,
The Cow. This starkly realistic account of peasant life, adapted from a short story by leftist writer
Gholam-Hossein Saedi, was banned in Iran for more than a year…” (Cook 651). It is a very
interesting inference to make that the Iranian film movement’s roots have always had
complications with censorship but also have focused on stories about the poor as depicted by
progressive members of Iranian society. Iranian cinema focused more on contemporary themes
that dealt with current social issues, such as Crimson Gold (2004) and Close-Up (1990), which
dealt with Iran’s current social issues in an almost documentary-like style. Although New
German Cinema often did produce films that were contemporary and dealt with social issues, it
did not shy away as much from historical films such as Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) and
The Tin Drum (1979), which both dealt with time periods of the past such as 16th-century Spain
and Nazi-era Germany.

In the 1980s, America was marked by the era of Ronald Reagan, entering his presidency
as well as a new decade and attempting to deal with the public’s national trauma of the political
turbulence of the 1970s. As Reagan worked to shoot patriotism powerfully upward amid national
trauma, he attempted to surface the traits of the American Dream back into the public
imagination. As a staunch conservative, Reagan attempted to emphasize a capitalist mindset,
family values, the dream of suburbia.

In Paris, Texas, Travis shows his brother, Walt, a washed-out photo of an empty lot in
what looks like the middle of nowhere. Travis begins to explain how the photo showed a plot of
land that Travis bought in Paris, Texas. It was where he and his family grew up and was where
he planned to build a house with his now ex-wife, Jane and their son. The plan never came to
fruition and the lot remains empty and desolate. The American spirit champions the dream of
working one’s way up, starting a family, building a home, becoming successful in Western
society’s eyes – yet often the dream is hollow. Travis’s story is set in Reagan’s America.
Characters are seen walking in desolate, arid desert land, peppered with worn-down billboards
echoing failed consumerism in a hollowed out country. In a later scene, Travis watches a Super 8
film of his family on vacation, contrasting their happy faces and kisses with his current
loneliness, years after running away from his ex-wife and son in a fire that abruptly ended their
family. Reagan’s era of family values echoes throughout society, but sometimes only produce
hollow shells of the nuclear family. The American Dream exists, but only as a far away fantasy
and not the tangible ladder that society champions.

1990s Iran was a massively politically turbulent time, dealing with the aftermath of the
1979 Islamic Revolution and the even fresher aftermath of the Iraq-Iran War. Being under heavy
censorship, filmmakers of the Iranian movement had to create their own language of minimalism
through simple storytelling techniques, no special editing, non-professional actors and
low-budget production. Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema however, was politically aware and did
not shy away from touching on such details within its storytelling. In Taste of Cherry, Mr. Badii
picks up a young boy who is said to be a soldier. He is timid and seems to be very respectful of
his elders but still very afraid. Mr. Badii passes by groups of young soldiers, marching on. He
reminisces on how he even used to be a soldier himself. Later on, he joins a man making eggs in
his makeshift home. The man mentions how there have been so many Afghanis in Iran and how
hard the war in Afghanistan and Iraq has been for the citizens of Iran. Mr. Badii mentions how
“hundreds of dead people were being buried at that moment”. Although under strict censorship,
post-Iranian Revolution Cinema does not shy away from being self-aware of its own national
turbulence. The narratives are aware of the national trauma that Iran has endured. The soldiers
and talks of wars current and past echo the violence and distress of Iranian society that has left
long-lasting scars on the country.

“The protagonists in this genre, accordingly, begin in a state of flight. They are
introduced to us as being on the run; we perceive them traveling away from something they
reject or fear even before we understand what that thing is.” (Pagès 3). The motifs of transit that
Paris, Texas and Taste of Cherry share is an inseparable part of my connection between the two
film movements and mise en scènes of the films. In Taste of Cherry, Mr. Badii drives up and
down the road, searching for a man to help him with his suicide plan. He attempts to gently lure
them in to discuss his job for them, but ends up running into men from different walks of life that
offer him various perspectives on life itself. Mr. Badii never explicitly mentions why he is
committing suicide, but he does mention that he had a family. In Paris, Texas, Travis was
missing for four years until he was found walking on some highway road in the desert. As an
audience, we wonder why he seems to be walking eternally to a destination unknown. By the end
of the film, we realize that Travis was not walking to something but away from something – as he
was running away from the disaster he had ensued amid the fire that burned down his family’s
home. Both men are in transit, running away from something that overwhelmed them. And for
both men, it is their own lives. Both men also share a similarity of having a family, indicating
signs of overwhelm and broken-down strength that may have been caused by relationships with
their respective families.

Another special motif of transit used in both films is the visual of the car. In New German
Cinema and Post-Iranian Revolution Cinema, cars symbolize confession, truth and vulnerability.
In Paris, Texas, after Travis is picked up from the desert by Walt, he chooses to stay mute for
some time, to the frustration of his brother. The first words that Travis utters are “Paris, Texas”,
foreshadowing his later story about his broken dream of building a house for his family on the
vacant lot in that location. Later on, Travis and his son go on a car chase, trying to keep track of
Travis’s wife who was driving a bright red car. The last scene of Travis is of him contemplating
in solitude as he drives to an unknown location after he returns their son to his ex-wife, Jane.
Taste of Cherry’ s use of the car is very overt, as 90% of the film happens from the perspective of
the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat. Mr. Badii drives around and looks for someone to help him
with his suicide, opening way for a few different conversations. The last man that Mr. Badii
picks up is a Turkish taxidermist who works at the museum, he tells Mr. Badii about his own
suicide attempt and how tasting mulberries and resdiscovering the simple pleasures of life turned
it all around. “He tells Badii that his troubled relationship with his wife once led him to decide
on suicide: he travelled out to a mulberry plantation with the intention of hanging himself from a
tree, but found his rope wouldn’t hold; he climbed the tree in order to retie it, brushing his hand
against some mulberries; he tasted them, he looked up to notice the sunrise; he decided not to kill
himself.” (Abbott 3).

In both these films, cars symbolize vulnerability. As Mr. Bagheri tells Mr. Badii
vulnerable stories about his own suicide, Mr. Badii listens to his confessions. In Paris, Texas,
Travis’s time in vehicles seem to act as spaces for him to be vulnerable – such as in his last scene
after his emotional parting with his family and when he first begins to speak to his brother.
“Instead of talking about his suicidal feelings, Badii passes over and over through a
hellish stretch of industrial debris, abandoned machinery and brown, dry vegetation. The land
itself looks ready to give up… simultaneously a real landscape and projection of Mr. Badii’s
mental state” (Erickson 2). The desert is another similarity that both Paris, Texas and Taste of
Cherry share. Both films are shot in very desolate, barren landscapes such as Tehran, Iran and
Texas, USA. This symbolizes a certain disillusionment with their countries amid post-war
national trauma and distress. As mentioned earlier, Paris, Texas’ s landscape of a broken-down
Americana world symbolizes the failure and emptiness of the American Dream. As Erickson
mentioned, Mr. Badii’s journey through industrial debris is “simultaneously a real landscape and
projection of Mr. Badii’s mental state”, which may have been instilled by the national distress of
the Iraq-Iran War and the Islamic Revolution’s aftermath under Khomeini.

In both Paris, Texas and Taste of Cherry, cinema is used as an artistic response to the
current socio-political state of affairs of their respective eras (Reagan-era America and
Post-Islamic Revolution Iran). New German Cinema and Post Iranian Revolution Cinema both
share roots in their contemplative, minimalist style and themes of alienation that reflect the
struggles of the common man within a societal landscape marked by national trauma and
distress. Wim Wenders himself claims, “A film can promote the idea of change without any
political message whatsoever but in its form and language can tell people that they can change
their lives and contribute to progressive changes in the world”. Film has the ability to be used as
a medium of expression in the midst of political upheaval and as Wenders suggests, can inspire
audiences to incite lasting change in one’s society through creative expression and the power of
great storytelling.

Works Cited
Abbott, Mathew. Abbas Kiarostami and Film-Philosophy. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748699919.
“A Chronology of the Middle East Conflict.” The Economist, from course materials.
Cook, David A. A History of Narrative Film: Middle East/Israel. 5th ed., W. W. Norton &
Company, 2016.
Erickson, Steve. “Review: Taste of Cherry by Abbas Kiarostami.” Film Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3,
1999, pp. 52–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/1213826.
Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey, editor. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press,
1996.
Pagès, Anna. “A Kind of Road: The Eye and the Gaze in Wim Wenders’s Paris, Texas.” Journal
of Philosophy of Education, vol. 55, no. 4–5, 2021, pp. 754–63.
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12601.