Chutzpah by Mort Laitner
My son, Blake, displayed classic chutzpah when he entered “The Stairs” in the Tehran International Short Film Festival (TISFF).
For those needing a Yiddish translation of chutzpah:
“Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines chutzpah as “gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible ‘guts’, presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to”. In this sense, chutzpah expresses both strong disapproval and condemnation. In the same work, Rosten also defined the term as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan”. Chutzpah amounts to a total denial of personal responsibility, that renders others speechless and incredulous …”
Blake demonstrated shameless boldness. You may ask, how did Blake accomplish such an audacious act?
Well as you are well aware, Tehran is the capital of Iran. The Iranian government has called for the destruction of the State of Israel. Its past president denied that the Holocaust occurred. He even held a anti-Holocaust conference in Tehran which was attended by neo-Nazis and KKK members. The government has even sponsored Holocaust cartoon contests.The Iranian government does not recognize the legitimacy as Israel as a state. It funds Hamas and Hezbollah. It calls Israel “The Little Satan” and the USA “The Big Satan”.
And as you are well aware, our short film is about the Holocaust.
Ergo, our chances of getting accepted by the TISFF are somewhere between not happening and it ain’t never in a million years gonna happen.
Well there is hope because on FilmFreeway the TISFF states, “Iran—The land of an ancient civilization with friendly people.”
Well, based on Iranian government policies toward Israel, Jews and the Holocaust that statement takes a lot of chutzpah!
