I Want to Be a King

Several years ago, two German tourists knocked at the door to the modest farmhouse of Abbas Barzegar somewhere near Shiraz, Iran. Barzegar offered them a place to stay and the meal that his wife had just prepared. The tourists ate with gusto, and the news soon spread that Barzegar served the best food in all of Iran. The simple farmer metamorphosed into a real businessman with successful, increasingly modern accommodations offering guests “the authentic Iran.” In his debut film, Mehdi Ganji shows how hard the family must work to satisfy the demand: Barzegar’s wife does overtime in the kitchen where she works her culinary magic using local produce, his three children do many odd jobs, and Barzegar himself acts as host, tour guide and logistics coordinator. But the man still isn’t satisfied. He talks about his considerable ambition to start an archaic nomadic tribe, so he can take his guests to a bygone age as if in a time machine. He is still looking for a woman who can serve as queen of the tribe to his king. At first, Barzegar’s wife and children react laconically to the dreams of their paterfamilias, but once he has actually found a nubile nomad girl, stress and depression hit them hard.