Looking for Shehrzad

An old Iranian black-and-white commercial is shown, a rather sumptuous adaptation of the Arabian Nights, in which Scheherazade saves her skin by telling about Shahpasand Vegetable Oil. The film was made during the regime of the Persian Shah, when women in short skirts or bathing suits could be shown on TV without a problem. The hilarious introductory compilation of excerpts even includes a detergent commercial in which the black chadors of a group of female dolls turn white when washed. Only a few days after the Islamic Revolution of 11 February 1979, the ‘capitalistic’ TV commercial was prohibited. Since then, the freedom of advertisers has increased again, but there are still strict restrictions. At the end of the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq, banks and insurance companies were permitted to advertise on TV. From static images, these then went from cute children’s faces to modern computer animations. Director Safi Yazdanian shows this development with great wit and interviews present-day, usually frustrated publicity agents. The recurring subject is censorship. Meanwhile, Yazdanian keeps searching for Scheherazade, the woman in the TV commercial. First, she was not allowed to appear on-screen, which forced the filmmakers to find creative solutions. The swiftly edited and varied documentary deals a final teasing blow with the end credits: a soundtrack with jazz is used: a musical genre that is still forbidden for makers of commercials.