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Zurkhaneh: The House of Strength: Music and Martial Arts of Iran. Federico Spinatti, director. Film (108 minutes). University of Alberta in collaboration with Lab 80 Film, 2010, 2014. Color. In English and Persian. (DVD) $13.00.
The institution of the zurkhaneh (gymnasium; lit., house of strength) and the series of exercises that are performed there known as varzesh-e bastani (ancient exercises) are deeply embedded in the fabric of Iranian society. They play a major role in the ways in which Iranian masculinities are constructed-physically, spiritually, and psychologically. The zurkhaneh, to the casual observer, can appear to be a complex martial arts genre designed to build the bodily strength of its performers. However, as this documentary reveals so clearly, the institution has clear religious, spiritual, and philosophical components that reveal to the viewer the importance of the music and its rhythms, the verses that are chanted, and the series of physical exercises that are performed. The round spaces in which the exercises are performed, centered on the god-e moqqadas (sacred pit), and the circular and upward quality of the movements demonstrate the ritual and ceremonial aspects of these performances. The film reveals that this is not simply a martial art with its accompanying physical aspects but a deeply complex way of life for thousands of Iranian men, and increasingly it is finding adherents in other countries around the world. The interviews, and an astonishingly fascinating series of scenes in a Sufi ritual, demonstrate the connections between religious and spiritual aspects of Iranian life and the lives and practices of the participants in the zurkhaneh.
The film states that there are at least five hundred zurkhaneh...