Love, Bones and Water

Zameenzad ( Cyrus Cyrus ) has managed an impressive feat: this parable of religion and politics is interesting in both narrative and representational terms. Peter, the son of noted politicians from two opposing parties in a country called New Heaven, happens upon a man on the beach whose tongue and penis have been cut off. Young Peter, who wants merely to relieve the man's suffering, watches as others begin to use the stranger for their own purposes. Eventually the stranger goes to live in a cave and becomes a figure of great significance to the poor living in a nearby shanty town, Gulroza. Some believe the strange man is a political prisoner who has been tortured, while others claim he is a saint. The town itself is the pawn in a political campaign between the two parties and an underground political movement in which Peter's uncle, Paul, is involved. Peter's mother, Eleanor, takes a politically motivated trip to observe the damage inflicted on Gulroza by a storm. There she meets the mysterious stranger; fixed by his powerful gaze (he is known as ``Diamond Eyes''), she vows to destroy him. Despite an ambiguous ending, this tale of intrigue versus innocence carries tremendous weight. (Apr.)