Guidance Patrol (film)

For the Iranian morality police, see Guidance Patrol.

Guidance Patrol
Poster for home video DVD
Directed bySaeed Soheili
Written by
  • Mehdi Mirzaie
  • Saeed Soheili
  • Mehdi Mohammad-Nezhadiani
Produced bySaeed Soheili
Starring
CinematographyTouraj Aslani
Edited byKaveh Imani
Music byNaser
Distributed byFilmiran
Release date
  • 15 March 2012 (2012-03-15) (Tehran)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryIran
LanguagePersian
Box office1,533,642,000 Toman[1]

Guidance Patrol (Persian: گشت ارشاد; Gasht-e Ershad) is a 2012 Iranian comedy film directed by Saeed Soheili. The movie depicts three urban working poor young men who impersonate crew of a Guidance Patrol to earn money.[2]

Dealing with a national issue,[2] the movie soon sparked controversy in Iran and eventually was pulled from screens.[3]

Ahmad Khatami called it "obscene" and "immoral" in Tehran's friday prayer speech.[3] Ansar-e Hezbollah protested outside the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance building and set a 48-hour deadline for suspending the screening of the movie.[3] Islamic Propagation Organization's Art Center, one of main proprietors of movie theatres in Iran, refused to screen the movie in its all 62 cinemas in order to "observe its duties in the protection of social and ideological values" because the movie "targeted Islamic morality and family decency".[4]

Though it was only able to screen in 15 movie theatres, it enjoyed a strong opening and became the box office number-one for Nowruz[5] before getting banned after 31 days.[1] Surpassed by Kolah Ghermezi and Bache Naneh and I Feel Sleepy, it became the third highest-grossing film screened in Iran in 1391 SH.[1]

  1. ^ a b c "ده فیلم پرفروش سال ۱۳۹۱" (in Persian). Khabaronline. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
  2. ^ a b Alex Shams (12 April 2012). "Politics of the Iranian Box Office: Mocking the Morality Police and Green Movement Conspiracies". Ajam Media Collective. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b c Arash Karami, Negar Mortazavi (4 April 2012). "Behind the Curtain: Two Popular Movies Pulled from Screens after Protests". Tehran Bureau. Retrieved 6 August 2016.
  4. ^ Peter Decherney, Blake Atwood (2014). Iranian Cinema in a Global Context: Policy, Politics, and Form. Routledge Advances in Film Studies. Vol. 32. Routledge. p. 238. ISBN 978-1317675204.
  5. ^ "گشت ارشاد به‌عنوان پرفروش‌ترين فيلم اعلام شد" (in Persian). Young Journalists Club. 6 April 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2016.