By Emilia Hwang
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Welcome to the summer blockbuster. This year’s big-budget
Hollywood production would like to introduce you to a company of
actors who appear purely for your aesthetic pleasure; more water
than you’d need to float an ark; and a plot with vital
statistics that flatline.
Thanks to your patronage, the untamable forces of “The
Perfect Storm” have clearly washed out the competition for
this summer’s box office returns.
Enter an independent film. Director Kamshad Kooshan cannot
compete at the box office with Wolfgang Peterson’s unbeatable
equation for success.
Without the formulaic elements of big names, mind-numbing
special effects and overly simplistic story lines, Kooshan’s
“Surviving Paradise” cannot draw large audiences in its
first weeks in limited release. Nevertheless, the independent film
is a force to be reckoned with, offering summer audiences a
refreshing break from ritualistic blockbuster brain damage.
In the movie, Pari (Shohreh Agdashloo) is kidnapped from the
airport upon her arrival in America, and her two children are
forced to navigate the streets of Los Angeles alone. Ten-year-old
Sam (Keyan Arman Abedini) and his younger sister Sara (Lauren
Parissa Abedini) encounter potentially dangerous characters as they
attempt to find their only relative in town.
But the gangsters, prostitutes and transients in this movie turn
out to be a source of empowerment rather than a fountain of
vice.
“Surviving Paradise” offers a refreshing view of
diversity in Southern California. Instead of a paradise lost to
these outsiders caught in violent negotiations, Los Angeles is a
paradise where unity is found in celebrating diversity.
For the Iranian American children, who must navigate through a
rainbow of ethnic neighborhoods, hope and help come in all colors,
ranging from African Americans to Asian Americans to Mexican
Americans.
Diversity is power to Kooshan. The Iranian-born writer, director
and producer attempts to reconcile race relations in a “salad
mix” metaphor.
The film offers some beautiful episodes of idealistic equality
that bridge class and culture, including a homeless man who gives
his blanket to the children asleep on a park bench and a gangster
who gives Sam his pager number (which is usually reserved
exclusively for “customers”).
Even the bad guys aren’t your typical villains. They are
actually incompetent gophers for a boss who only exists in
conversation.
Since the kidnappers do not appear to be inspired by inherent
evil, motivation remains ambiguous.
The driving force behind the villain, Mr. F., is especially
equivocal, as the short story writer-turned-hit man is left to
ponder the effects of his present occupation. His multi-faceted
character solicits deeper inspection, much like the other
disenfranchised characters of the film.
Disappointingly, however, where “Surviving Paradise”
succeeds by presenting alternative portraits of characters often
stereotyped by mainstream Hollywood, it fails to keep itself from
falling into those same stereotypes.
Ethnic caricatures become the by-product of Kooshan’s
treatment of ethnic diversity. The volatile subject of immigration
explodes into one racial stereotype after another.
The owner of the Chinese restaurant can only speak with an
exaggerated accent and the Mexican drug dealer makes a heroic exit
in a drive by shooting. The story’s theme of tolerance is
counterproductive as ethnic caricatures perpetrate the stereotypes
they seek to negate.
Furthermore, by trying to present an odyssey through every
ethnic ghetto in Los Angeles, potentially effective fragments prove
abortive in a loosely constructed story. Short-lived roles are only
slim slices of the rich characters that could have developed
The film exhibits good intentions of representing diversity in
Los Angeles. But by attempting to cover too many groups, Kooshan
only touches on the complexity of race relations and the result is
an over-simplistic microcosm.
Though “Surviving Paradise” may not be the perfect
summer flick, it offers choice in a barrage of big-budget summer
movies. In the honorable tradition of independent films,
Kooshan’s feature debut offers an alternative to the
larger-than-life “Storm” and proves that you
don’t need a deluge to tell a story.
FILM: “Surviving Paradise” is in theaters now in
limited release.