The Song Of Scorpions, a rural relationship drama starring Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani and Indian actor Irrfan Khan that was screened at the ongoing Dubai International Festival, was triggered by the horrific news of gang rape of a 23-year-old woman in a moving bus in Delhi. The Switzerland-based Indian director Anup Singh claims that the gory incident affected him deeply. “In 2012 in India, we woke up to a piece of news that changed us. As a nation, we felt as if we had been poisoned deeply and eternally … the inhumanity of the violation, the horrendous nature of it poisoned all of us,” said Singh in a Q & A session after the screening on Thursday night.
The Song Of Scorpions is a tale of a camel trader Aadam (Khan) who falls in love with the bewitching Nooran (Farahani), a healer who sings and cures those who have been stung by scorpions. He pursues her relentlessly, but their union is marred when Nooran gets brutally raped.
“I woke up around 3am and I had all these images of a man half-buried in sand and a woman walking away, shawl burning and in the smoke of a burning shawl there was a melody. These unconnected images were saying something to me. Almost immediately, I starting writing about those images and suddenly the story began to emerge.”
The Song Of Scorpions also saw Farahani spending six months in India, learning Hindi and preparing for her role. Singh describes the exiled Iranian star as one of the actresses who has the ability to stay with her role until the very end.
“Although she’s in exile, she carries a rage but I have never felt any sense of bitterness. The sense of exile has made her alive to the possibilities of playing ‘the other’. She brings such intensity to Nooran,” said the director.
For the award-winning actor Khan, it was the opportunity to re-unite with his Qissa director that was the biggest draw.
“I am like clay when being directed by Anup. He can mould me in any manner,” said Khan.
Read the full interview with Irrfan Khan soon.
