Persian Passion: Of Gods and Gargoyles

During the 1848 “Year of Revolution” in Europe, the first conference in the world proclaiming the emancipation of all women is convened by a Persian prisoner — in an Iranian village. His messianic movement soon sweeps Persia, but the king and Muslim clergy are too entrenched in the old ways to welcome the evolutionary changes in culture. Muhammad Shah is dying, so a violent tug for power ensues between his unfaithful wife — a Machiavellian Lady Macbeth — and his venal Grand Vazír. Each has a preferred child-prince s/he wants on the throne; each wants this messianic movement crushed. The conflict comes to a head at the inquisition trial of the imprisoned seer (“the Báb” — or, Gate), staged by the Grand Vazír to embarrass the Royal Mother’s teenage son who, as nominal Crown Prince, must preside over the tribunal. The stakes are high: if the Báb proves himself to be the Promised One of Islam, then he must be the true sovereign of Persia. "Persian Passion" is the dramatic portrayal of the darkest hour before the 1848 dawn of the day whose noon effulgence all the world still longs to witness.