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During the last 6 months of 2007, Channel 2 of the Iranian TV aired a 28-episode series called "40 Soldiers." The series, created by Mohammad Nouri-zad, examines the development of Iranian culture from four historical perspectives: The mythological pre-Islamic period, the life of national poet Hakim Abol-Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi (935-1020 CE), the life of Imam Ali, and the modern era.
The last four episodes of the series take place on an island in the southern Persian Gulf at some unspecified time in the future, when Americans occupy an Iranian island. These episodes were aired on Iranian Channel 2 in December 2007.
Dr. Mohsen Tabesh, an Iranian bank manager, decides to wed his daughter, Pantea, to the son of Farid Memarian, a lecturer on modernization and a newspaper editor. During the wedding ceremony, Tabesh’s security guards betray him and rob the participants.
The Americans use this opportunity to invade the island on which the wedding ceremony is held.
The Islamic resistance to the Americans summons the "40 soldiers" – heroes from Persian mythology – who vanquish the American army.
Following are excerpts from the episodes.
"An Island in the Persian Gulf – Sometime in the Future"
An elderly man beats a drum on the seacoast
[...]
U.S. Commanding Officer Isaac Hamilton to soldiers: Faster. Hurry up.
Akbar Kebraye'i, a sugar merchant: What's going on here?
[...]
Hamilton surveys devastated wedding hall. Several Iranians remain in hiding. The bride is sprawled on the floor
[...]
Hamilton: Who is he? Ahmad-Abadi?
Farid Memarian, a lecturer: Yes, Mr. Ahmad-Abadi.
Hamilton threatens Kebraye'i with a gun to his forehead, then introduces himself.
Hamilton: Hamilton. Isaac Hamilton.
Memarian (to Kebraye’i): Introduce yourself. Tell him your name.
Kebraye'i: Kebraye'i.
Hamilton: Kebraye'i?
Kebraye'i: Yes, mister. You pronounced it correctly. I am Akbar Kebraye'i.
Memarian: I am Memarian. My name in Farid Memarian.
Hamilton: Memarian?
Memarian: That's right. His name is Tabesh, Dr. Tabesh.
Hamilton: Tabesh?
Mohsen Tabesh, a bank manager Yes, Mohsen Tabesh.
[...]
Hamilton places candles around the unconscious bride.
Hamilton: Hello, little Alice. Open your eyes for me. Come on, sleeping beauty. What's your name? Would you tell it to me?
Memarian: Her name is Pantea.
Hamilton: Pantea?
Memarian: Pantea.
Hamilton: Very nice. Beautiful.
Pantea the bride opens her eyes.
Memarian: Don't worry, my dear. They are our friends. The nightmare is over.
Pantea: Mother... I'm awake...
Memarian: Everybody is fine. Don't worry. We stayed here for you. These are our friends. They are not strangers. You can believe me, my dear.
[...]
Kebraye'i (to himself): Where did they pop up from, all of a sudden? Or, in fact, is there a place where they are not to be found? If you close your eyes, and put your finger randomly on a map of the world, you'll see that they know every inch of land better than the locals. You don't think so? Take a look...
Kebraye’i (to one of the U.S. soldiers): What is the size of this island in kilometers, mister?
Soldier:110.
Kebraye'i: What did he say?
Memarian: He said 110 kilometers.
[...]
Hamilton: Mister Memarian.
Memarian: Yes, sir.
Hamilton: Are you the father of the bride?
Memarian: Yes, sir.
Hamilton: Where is the groom?
Kebraye'i: The groom? The groom – he did a runner.
Hamilton: He did what?
Memarian: He's gone, sir. Gone.
Hamilton: May this young pretty lady be mine for some time?
Memarian: What?
Hamilton: Didn't you get it? I said: May this young pretty lady be mine for some time?
[...]
Memarian: I don't speak English so well.
Hamilton: Don't you worry. Farsi will do too.
Memarian: Do you know what the word "surprise" means? I was taken by surprise. I can't think so clearly.
Hamilton: The island has been occupied by us.
Memarian: No!
Hamilton: Yes.
Memarian: They have occupied the island. What should we do, Mr. Kebraye'i? Mr. Tabesh?
[...]
Hamilton: Get her for me.
Memarian: Mr. Hamilton...
[...]
Pantea: Father.
Memarian: Don't be afraid, don't worry at all. As long as I'm here, you have no need to worry.
[...]
Pantea: Help!
Several U.S. soldiers chase Pantea, pointing guns at her.Pantea: Father... Mr. Tabesh... Mr. Kebraye'i....
Kebraye'i: They're just having a laugh with you. They don't mean any harm.
Hamilton raises blinds revealing Persian artwork.
Pantea: Mr. Kebraye'i, help me.
Kebraye'i: Such behavior is unbecoming for an educated girl like yourself, Pantea.
Pantea: I am doomed. Do something.
Mr. Tabesh: Stop, we are friends, stop.
U.S. soldier pushes Mr. Tabesh over a table. Pantea hides behind her father, Memarian.
Memarian: I am against aggression. I detest aggression. We can resolve this issue by...
The soldier butts his rifle into Memarian, throwing him at a table.
Pantea: Help me, Mr. Kebraye'i.
Kebraye'i: Such behavior is unbecoming for a smart girl like you.
Pantea: I'm doomed. Help me.
Kebraye'i: Oh what a night – It's a night of nuptials. Take a look at the bridegroom – how handsome he is. Blessings upon the bride and bridegroom...
Narrator: Five bullets for five invading soldiers.
The soldiers are shot at from outside. Two members of the Islamic resistance, Omid and his wife Zahra, enter with guns in their hands.
Omid: Nobody move!
Zahra grabs Pantea.
Zahra (to Pantea): Calm down.
Omid holds Hamilton at gun point
Omid: What are you doing here?
Hamilton: No.
Omid: Talk!
Hamilton: No.
Omid: I asked what you are doing here.
Omid punches Hamilton.
Memarian: You are acting recklessly. This is reckless behavior. You turned a simple problem, which could easily have been resolved through dialogue, into an irresolvable problem.
Omid: Take his gun, and give it to me. I said: Take his gun, and give it to me.
Zahra: Calm down.
Kebraye'i: Don't shoot, my son. They are not merely bad weeds that you can remove. Do you know who they are? Even their dogs have I.D. cards, let along themselves. He killed five young men, just like that.
[...]
The member of the Islamic resistance takes the weapons of the dead U.S. soldiers and hands one to Mr. Tabesh.
Member of the resistance: We must defend ourselves.
Mr. Tabesh: Don't make things more complicated than they already are, and don't pretend to be a guerrilla fighter. We've been humiliated enough already.
Omid: These people have occupied the entire island. "Oh my Iran, my Iran, you are dearer to me than life itself." Wasn't it you who chanted that poem?
Kebraye'i: Not me. I've got to go somewhere really urgently.
Hamilton grabs free of Memarian's hold and hits him. Zahra shoots at Hamilton.
Kebraye'i: Help!
Omid points a gun at Hamilton
Omid: Get back to your place. I told you to go back to your place.
Memarian (to Hamilton): Sit down.
[...]
Omid ties Hamilton to a chair
Omid: You have not yet said what you are doing here. Did you think that we are like Iraq or Afghanistan, and that you could come into the country, and achieve your goals easily? Do you want me to tell you what you are doing here? You are here because of your complexes. You're running away by moving ahead. You occupy [countries], and plunder them, so that nobody will complain about your own cultural emptiness. Isn't that true? Everybody can see that this pointless invasion is a reflection of your complexes.
Hamilton laughs. Explosions and gunshots are heard in the background
Hamilton: Meaningless. Quite meaningless. It's meaningless. Meaningless.
[...]
Zahra: You weaved a web of lies, and you expect the people of the world to believe you. The greater the lie, the more useful it is. In the name of human rights and democracy, you are trying to achieve your goals. Your lack of culture is your weakness. Your problem is that you don't have a history. True, you are rich, but despite all your riches, your identity wouldn't even fill a suitcase. You perpetrate acts of murder and looting and you kill human beings in order to compensate for your weakness.
Hamilton: Shut up, you fool.
[...]
Memarian: Their technology is their history. Their identity is their money, their wealth, and their atomic bombs.
[...]
Omid: We need help, real help. Can you go and get help?
Zahra: I never thought there was so much hatred and violence in me. What am I doing with these weapons? Doesn't that go against my feminine nature, Omid?
Omid: Look at Pantea. What happened to her is the result of inaction – both ours and hers.
Zahra: God, what kind of disaster has befallen us?
Hamilton: I like it. You are a brave couple.
Kebraye'i: He spoke in Farsi.
Kebraye'i lights a cigarette for Hamilton.
Omid: So you know Farsi too.
Kebraye'i: Didn't I tell you that they are a different kind of creature? If you place your finger at random on a map of the world, you will find that they know everything there is to know about that place. Farsi is nothing – they speak French, English, and everything...
[...]
Memarian: I myself have no dispute with you. I totally understand your situation. I have often held dialogues with your colleagues. I have written treatises with them, and I have delivered lectures. Here in Iran, I am a thinker. I am a teacher, and I navigate political and economic crises. My friends call the "non-conformist" – maybe because I insist on defying the norms. I am sure that we understand each other very well. What do you want, after all? Security. We can work together. You provide us with security, and we will support you.
[...]
Zahra: Pantea!
The wedding hall comes under attack from the outside, Pantea stands upright in the line of fire and sustains a wound.
Memarian: Pantea!
Zahra: Pantea!
Memarian: Pantea, what are you doing? Pantea, where are you going?
Zahra: Pantea!
Kebraye'i: Come back. Come back.
Memarian: Damn you!
Zahra: Pantea!
Zahra sets out to save Pantea, but she herself falls down. Omid comes to the rescue.
Omid: Pantea!
Hamilton: No!
Pantea is mortally wounded
Memarian: I'm out of here. I'm not staying here.
Kebraye'i: If we are safe outside, I'm going out too.
Memarian, Kebraye'i, and Tabesh, run out of the hall but meet a barrage of fire and return.
Kebraye'i: They have taken control everywhere.
Memarian: We couldn't get out and negotiate with them.
[...]
Omid: We need to get help, no matter what. How – I don't know.
Zahra: God, how could we be so careless? When did they plan this, and when did they take action?
Omid: Throughout the time that we didn't do anything.
[...]
Kebraye'i, Tabesh, and Hamilton direct their weapons at Omid.
[...]
Memarian: Throw down your weapon. Put it aside. Get out.
Omid puts down his weapon.
Memarian: When you two weren't here, we made new decisions. Did you hear what I said? When you two weren't here, we made new decisions.
Omid: Yes, I see.
[...]
You are a prisoner of your own words, and you are a prisoner here too.
Memarian: I am free, can't you see?
It is you who are a prisoner, yet you pretend to be Che Guevara.Kebraye'i: If we had their money and power, we would have been acting the same way.
[...]
Tabesh: I know that it seems as they are attacking, occupying, and plundering, but one can look at it differently. Do you have any money? No. Do you have any power? No. Do you have science, technology, and management abilities? No. When you lack all these things – what's wrong with relying on people who have all those things?
[...]
Hamilton: You smell like a coffin – a disintegrating coffin with a rotting corpse in it. All this wealth of yours... You see them – Mr. Tabesh, Memarian and Mr. Kebraye'i – they are willing to nail you to the wall at my command. I lack identity? I lack history? Didn't I say that you smell like a coffin?
Omid: My coffin is large enough for another corpse.
Hamilton: You are making an effort for nothing. Why were you incapable of killing me? Because you consider me a PoW. You could have negotiated with me. Do you know what there is beyond these walls? A military force that is like a fist encompassing you and all you have. Even if you had killed me, you would still have remained a prisoner of that force.
[...]
U.S. soldiers lead Kebraye'i, Memarian, and Tabesh out of the hall at gunpoint.
Kebraye'i: I can help you. Let's talk about it.
[...]
Omid is tied to a pole
Hamilton: It's just you and me now. Now you can start with your bravado again. I don't see your wife. Where did you send her?
Omid: She went to get help.
Hamilton: Help? Help... Where did you go to get help from? The island is under our control. Where will she get help from?
Omid: From a place where you have no foothold.
Hamilton: From where?
Omid: From near and far.
Hamilton: Don't move much, or else 220 volts might hit your body. So you think we suffer from a lack of history and identity?
Omid: Isn't that true?
Hamilton: Maybe it is, and maybe it isn't.
[...]
We have things that the coming generations will not even dream of. Fine, you have your history, your identity, your myths, your decorated tiles, your domes, and even the historic sites of Minar Jonban and Takht-e Jamshid. But this island belongs to me.
Omid: Hamilton! Hamilton! Listen, the things you mentioned are our identity, yet they are not. Hamilton! Hamilton!
[...]
We have Ali and Hussein, and you don't. Listen up, Hamilton. We have martyrs, and you don't. We have [the courageous] Malek-e Ashtar, and you don't. Hamilton! Hamilton!
[...]
U.S. soldiers enter the wedding hall.
Omid: Hamilton! Hamilton! Should I go on? We have Khomeini, and you don't. We have the Basij members, and you don't. We have the Mahdi, and you don't. We have Fatimah, and don't.
The gun of a tank is driven through the walls.
[...]
Omid's wife, Zahra: I had no choice but to leave the island and to go somewhere else – to a place where I can ask for help from anybody who has a sense of brotherhood with Iran and the Iranians. Woe betide my homeland. I fear the day the enemies will covet and conquer you.
She gets on an amphibious vehicle and escapes into the darkness of the ocean.
Hamilton: Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
Fire!
Get her! Get her, I want her. Don't let her escape.
[...]
Zahra: Beyond the roars of those who consider themselves to be masters of the world, there are barefoot people, who, like Moses, will bring about the breakdown of Pharaoh's power of steel, and will cast him into the sea. Men from among the nation, on their way to liberate their homeland and their faith, smile in the face of death. These are the anonymous sons of Iran, who make no demands.
[...]
Hamilton: My soldiers!
The soldiers march off.
More killing, more blood. Is there anything more pleasurable than that? Whoever seeks pleasure in song, wine, lust, and riches is lazy. My pleasure and yours lie in watching an old culture fall apart.
[...]
The U.S. soldiers perform a drilling exercise
Hamilton: To whom does the world belong?
U.S. soldiers : The world belongs to us.
Hamilton: To whom does the world belong?
U.S. soldiers: The world belongs to us.
Hamilton: We are the masters of the world.
U.S. soldiers: We are the masters of the world.
Hamilton: We are the masters of the world.
U.S. soldiers: We are the masters of the world.
Hamilton: We are the masters of the world.
U.S. soldiers: We are the masters of the world.
Hamilton: Say it.
U.S. soldiers: We are the masters of the world.
[...]
As the elderly man beats the drum on the seacoast, Iranian forces run to battle.
[...]
Hamilton: We are now facing several battalions that have united against us. The stench of their antiquity assaults our sense of smell.
[...]
The elderly man beats his drum on a cliff on the seacoast. The Iranian forces march from the coast.
Iranian forces: Oh, Mahdi!
Oh, Mahdi!
Oh, Mahdi!
Oh, Mahdi!
Oh, Mahdi!
[...]
Hamilton: My soldiers, have fun.
U.S. soldiers: We will have fun.
Officer: Say it.
U.S. soldiers: We will have fun.
Officer: Say it.
U.S. soldiers: We will have fun.
Officer: Say it.
U.S. soldiers: We will have fun.
The Iranian forces march through a forest
Iranian forces: Oh, Mahdi.
[...]
Commander of Iranian forces: My dears, we were careless, and they used it to occupy this island. However, our carelessness could be the beginning, not the end, of the road.
Hamilton addresses his troops; characters from Iranian history face them.
Hamilton: My soldiers, victory will be yours. There is no doubt about it. Our children will be proud of you. Kill more and more, because our survival depends on your ability to finish off these lowlifes. In order to be able to face us, they brought their history and identity to the fray. In order to remain masters of the world, we have destroyed many a culture. They had the audacity will cause others to summon their destroyed cultures too. In order to become complete masters of the world, we must destroy them too, if you want to grab the world in your fist. We will have respect for them once they are dead. We will have respect for them once they are dead.
U.S. soldiers: We will have respect for them once they are dead.
Hamilton: The world belongs to us.
U.S. soldiers: The world belongs to us.
Hamilton: Well done, my brave soldiers. The world will be proud of you. Kill those morons who are held captive by their past. By killing each one of them you remove another obstacle from the path of humanity. Humanity will owe you a debt of gratitude. You are the architects of our outstanding culture – the culture of world domination. They are the only ones who reject our domination.
[...]
Hamilton: We are not like Genghis Khan.
U.S. soldiers: We are not like Genghis Khan.
Hamilton: We are not like Genghis Khan.
U.S. soldiers: We are not like Genghis Khan.
Hamilton: We are the friends of humanity.
U.S. soldiers: We are not like Genghis Khan.
[...]
Hamilton fires his handgun at the characters from Iranian history, but the bullets have no effect on them.
Hamilton: First four soldiers prepare to fire.
Fire!
They open fire, but again, the bullets have no effect on their adversaries.
Hamilton: Prepare to open fire!
Fire!
All the soldiers open fire, to no avail.
[...]
The characters from Iranian history charge towards the U.S. soldiers, on horseback. The soldiers begin to scatter.
Hamilton: Where are you going? Come back, you stupid cowards. Stop, don't go. Where are you going, you idiots? Don't go, you cowards. Stop, where are you going? Don't be afraid.
[...]
Hamilton is left alone and escapes to a cave. He opens fire all in every direction.
Hamilton: Ahoy, where are you? We are the epitome of power. We are the supreme race. We are the sole and absolute masters of the world. You're no match for us, you lowlifes.
[...]
This is me – the god of technology, the god of civilization.
Malek Ashtar: I am Malek Ashtar, the source of purity and bravery.
Abu Raf'e: And I am Abu Raf'e, the slave freed by the Messenger of Allah. Wherever there is injustice, we will do whatever needed.
Hamilton tries to shoot at them but they remain unaffected.
Rostam: You call us lowlifes, you rootless man? Get out of our land!
Sohrab: Didn't you hear what my father said? Get out of our land!
Rostam: If you keep on killing and killing, you will be giving up the land to your enemies.
Commander of the Iranian forces: You have come to this island from the other side of the world to say that you are the epitome of power, the supreme race, and the absolute master of the world. Do you want to know who is the epitome of power?
[...]
Esfandyar: You have said many things, stranger. Stay here, and witness the courage of the people of Iran.
Hamilton is surrounded, the elderly man beats his drums, the scene ends with the image of the Iranian flag.
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