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[rustling]

[soft music playing]

[video call ringing]

[man in Farsi]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[crowd shouting]

[gunfire]

[reporter in English] The end of Iran's monarchy

came early today when Khomeini's followers

took control of the palace of the Shah.

-[gunfire] -[shouting]

[reporter 2] But there are fears among at least some Iranians

that the repression of the Shah may soon be replaced

by the bigotry of the Muslim priests.

[crowd shouting]

[Nicky in Farsi]

[chanting]

[in English] You can't just let it go.

You can read what happened in the revolution

through those paintings.

Historically, those are really important.

They not be greatest painting of all time,

but there is a record of that time.

And it's a real record.

I want that.

I want to somehow get it out,

bring it here.

[mellow music playing]

[vocalizations]

[woman 1] He was one of the most important living artists

in Iran and in the United States

in our lifetime.

[woman 2] The very foundation of his paintings

are people versus people of power.

[woman 1] His art is threatening to people.

It's threatening not just to the Iranian establishment.

It's also threatening to some people in the West.

[woman 3]

[vocalizations continue]

[woman 1] Did someone put the art

in a special storage area?

Did someone steal the art?

Did the art get destroyed?

We don't know.

[woman 4] It's like somebody dying.

The body has never been found.

It's just a big chunk of-of his life

that has disappeared.

So there's the trauma of losing his country,

and then there's the trauma of losing part of himself.

[vocalizations continue]

[camera shutter clicks]

[Sara] That exhibition changed our life forever.

[camera shutter clicks]

[music fades]

Do you see this one?

Yeah, I hate that.

[Nicky laughs]

[in Farsi]

[in English] I just hate those pictures of me...

nude.

What are these paint-- When were these done?

1981.

You wanna write it on the back of it?

[in Farsi]

-[in English] No. -Just, just with a pencil, 1981.

-Can I write it? -No.

Are you sure, 1981?

[Nicky] Yes.

[Sara] So, are these similar to the work that's missing?

[Nicky] A little bit, yes.

[vibrant music playing]

Sara, just be careful.

The shoulder of this lady

would be matched with the shoulder of this guy.

He's going to be half man, half woman.

Something like that.

[Sara] This is the evangelical hypocrisy,

maybe?

Okay, you can make whatever you want,

the story.

[in Farsi]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[call to prayer echoing]

[woman in English] Who is Nicky meeting again?

So Nicky is meeting Mahmoudreza Bahmanpour.

He lives in Iran,

but we're meeting in Turkey

because Nicky can't go to Iran.

Bahmanpour knows people in the museum,

and the plan is for him to help us get the paintings back.

[indistinct greetings]

[Mahmoud in Farsi]

[Nicky]

[laughter]

[Nicky]

[crowd cheering]

[reporter in English] The Imperial Majesty,

king of kings,

Shahanshah of Iran.

He's one of the richest men in the world.

He appoints the prime minister.

He can dissolve the parliament.

He controls the army. He controls the press.

Very little criticism of him is allowed.

[Karim] The Shah was an ally

of the United States and the British.

He was educated in the West.

In some ways, he ruled at the behest

of Western powers.

[applause]

[soft, gloomy music playing]

In the early 1970s, there was an oil boom

which provided resources

to the Shah and the Queen

to do things no Iranian leaders in history

had been able to do,

whether that was to throw lavish international parties

or build world-class art collection.

[Shiva] The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art

opened in 1978,

and, of course, the Queen of Iran,

the Empress Farah was its patron.

[Nicky]

[Shiva] When the revolution was successful

in overthrowing the Shah,

one of the first institutions

that the revolutionaries took over

was the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

[Mahmoud in Farsi]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

-[inaudible dialogue] -[gulls calling]

[call to prayer echoing]

[tranquil music playing]

[Nicky in English] After I escaped,

I didn't think I would never go back to Iran.

[reporter] Images are trickling out

from across Iran

where thousands have taken to the streets

in daring acts of defiance

never seen before on this scale.

[reporter 2] More women have been arrested

for their activism by the Iranian Morality Police

as the movement has grown.

[reporter 3] Extraordinary protests

continue across the country

over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

Thousands of young Iranians

have joined the demonstrations,

with women leading the charge.

I believed that religion was made

to put down women, and, uh,

it's a men decision to control women

from every aspect of life.

[Sara] When did you make these?

Uh, about a few months ago when, uh,

the revolution started in Iran.

They are holding a gun,

and, uh, I'm suggesting that it's time

to get armed.

[Linda] Nahid Hagigat was producing work

about Iranian women

before anyone else.

She was also a role model for Iranian women artists,

so all are standing on her shoulders in a way.

Whether they knew of her work or not,

she made their ascent possible.

[gentle music playing]

[Nahid] I entered the School of Visual Art in Tehran,

and I was very happy there.

It was like a renaissance.

Nickzad got into the university a year after me.

[Nicky] I saw Nahid and she was laughing,

and I thought maybe she's much more approachable

than the other people.

[Nahid] Nickzad was a kid from Kermanshah.

He had a very thick accent,

so we made fun of his accent.

-[Sara] Why did you pick him? -Probably I liked him

because you never tease anyone if you don't like him.

[Sara] What, were you like holding hands?

It... it was difficult things to do in Tehran.

You would... you would never get to hold hands.

[Nahid] He showed interest in me,

and I said, "Don't even think about it.

I'm Jewish. You're Muslim."

But eventually, I saw love in him

and I felt love for him too.

We both came from Iran,

and we were both very passionate about our art.

And that was not easy.

That was not easy at all.

[water drips]

[paint swishing]

[cart rattling]

[vibrant music playing]

[rapid vocalizations]

[vocalizations stop, music calms]

[Nicky] What do you want me to tell you?

[girl] What's it about? What's happening in this picture?

Yeah, like, this person, he looks...

I'm not gonna touch the painting.

-[Nicky] You can touch. -But, um...

[Nicky] This is my... Yeah, go ahead.

What do you see?

I see like, um, some kind of donkey tie--

with a fish tied up on it,

and they're getting ready for an adventure,

or they're having sex.

Tied up.

Having sex? [laughs] Okay.

This one...

It's about power.

The red symbolize

the blood that comes after this situation.

The man is a politician. Actually...

[Mahmoud in Farsi]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[Sara]

[in English] The idea would be that she would maybe pose

to make a film about something else.

It's really a question for her.

Is she willing to do such a thing?

-[mellow music playing] -[video call ringing]

[in Farsi]

[laughter]

[Sara]

[filmmaker, distorted]

["The House of the Rising Sun" by The Animals playing]

[Nahid] I never thought

that my parents would agree to marry a Muslim.

I always knew that it's not gonna happen,

but I thought maybe if I get out of Tehran,

maybe things change between us.

I can go my way and he can go his way.

I applied for New York University.

I was accepted,

and I came to New York in 1968.

♪ There is a house in New Orleans ♪

♪ They call the Rising Sun ♪

♪ And it's been the ruin ♪

[Nahid] Nickzad joined me

in July 1969.

[Sara] Were you happy that he came?

[Nahid] Of course I was happy.

At the same time, I was very, very, very worried.

How can I say anything to my parents?

["The House of the Rising Sun" continues]

[Nicky] In New York, I got involved

with the Vietnam and anti-war movement...

♪ Sewed my new blue jeans ♪

[Nicky] ...Palestinian rights,

and Black Panthers.

Most of all, I was involved

with the Iranian Student Association

to expose the crimes of the Shah.

♪ Oh, mother ♪

♪ Tell your children ♪

♪ Not to do what I have done ♪

♪ Spend your lives in sin and misery ♪

♪♪ In the House of the Rising Sun ♪

[song ending]

[Nahid] During that time, we lived

in a railroad apartment in Williamsburg.

He kept telling me

that we should not do this, we should not do that,

because we are going to Iran.

"Okay, let's get a telephone to call someone."

"No, no telephone.

We are not gonna get any telephone

because we are going to Iran."

He was determined to go back to Iran,

and I was not.

[gentle music playing]

[cars honking]

Nickzad went to Iran

to have his own work exhibited.

We decided that I should do that too,

and he took maybe ten or twelve of my etchings to Iran.

I made etchings about Iranian workers,

peasants,

factory workers,

rug weavers, basket weavers.

And then I combined my knowledge

from American artists like Andy Warhol

and Iranian figurative.

That first show in Tehran

was completely sold out.

So we got very excited about that,

and the next year,

I sent another group of etchings,

and that was, also, was sold out.

But that was it.

[Nicky] In Iran, I was interrogated

by the SAVAK

because of my political activism in New York.

[Shah] We are now sophisticated enough

to use the same methods that you people are using

for interrogating the people that you have to.

[Karim] SAVAK was the Shah's secret police.

Trained by the CIA,

SAVAK employed torture.

The more he ruled,

the more he became reliant on the SAVAK.

-[shouting] -[keys jingling]

[door clanging]

[Nicky] In each interrogation,

there were two chairs.

One where I was sitting

and one beside me, empty.

Every time I paint,

there is a chair.

Uh, SAVAK send me

to go to a secret house in Tehran.

And two people would come, and they would ask the question

and I had to write the answer.

We never talk.

Sometimes, one of them would leave the room,

and this one would say, "Do what he asks."

[Sara] And they also asked about the people

at the Iranian Student Association?

Yeah, they brought in the picture of most of them,

with like 10, 15 people that were known.

There was no reason to hide their names,

so I would say, this and this, I know.

Then I don't know the rest of them.

[cell keys jingling]

After three months interrogation,

they said, "What do you want to do?"

I said, "I'd like to be a teacher."

They said, "No."

And I said, "Can I work in TV?"

They said, "No."

"Can I work in publishing house?"

They said, "No."

"So you're going back to New York?"

I said, "Yes."

They said, "Go to the sessions

that you're usually going to

and report to us."

I said, "I'm not gonna do that."

[grim music playing]

[Sara] You had to sign something?

[Nicky] Actually, I did.

"I accept the independent leadership

and progression of the Shah."

[camera shutter clicking]

So, finally, I decided to go back to New York.

We protested all the time

against the brutality of the SAVAK.

We wanted to have freedom of speech,

freedom of participation in the government.

[Sara] Did the Iranian student organization

change him as a person?

[Nahid] They change him.

He was not already like that.

[crowd shouting]

Little by little, this group

is going toward communism,

especially Chinese communism.

They are having these little red books

written by Mao Zedong,

and they are giving it away to everyone.

This was not my cup of tea,

but I went along with it a little bit.

I did it for our marriage sakes.

[light music playing]

[children chattering]

I told my mother

that Nickzad is my boyfriend

and we might get married.

She was extremely upset.

[Nicky] Nahid's parents

threaten her.

If she gets married with me,

she would be out of the family.

They would never talk to her.

We did it anyway.

[projector clicking]

[Sara laughs]

This... this is...

[Sara] You said that, afterwards,

you went to a protest.

[Nicky] Yes. I went back to the Iran House...

[Sara] So didn't you think, like, "It's our wedding day,

maybe we should make it special"?

-This kind of normal life... -These are bourgeois things

that you're not supposed to do.

[tranquil music playing]

[Sara] Did you both look down on this kind of life

or just you?

Just me. That's the... That's the difference.

If you're revolutionary, you should be revolutionary.

Everything should be tough and rough and ready for a fight.

[foreboding music playing]

[woman singing in Farsi]

[camera shutter clicks]

You want to do really something

that disturbs people, confuse people,

make them uncomfortable.

[Shiva] If you look at a Nicky Nodjoumi painting,

he's speaking about what's happening in the world today.

He reads the newspaper,

and he starts drawing on the goddamn newspaper.

Like, he can't even process the news

without making art about it.

That's how he sees,

that's how he understands the world,

is making art.

He has environmental concerns,

but he also has concerns about constructed borders

and who gets to live within these borders

and who gets kept out.

He has concerns about war.

He has concerns about revolutions.

And these are not just political concerns.

They're also his personal experience.

[singing continues]

[Linda] There are some things that are very unsettling

in his art.

There's the sense of paranoia.

Sometimes, something horrible happening.

At other times, they're not explained.

If there's a narrative going on, it's up to the viewer

to fill in what it is that you're seeing.

[Shirin] Nicky has this capability

of being a fighter

because that's what he had to do all his life.

[Clare] I'd say he's kaleidoscopic

in the sense that he has these very different references

that all come together

without ever gelling into something

that seems resolved.

There's always a sense of tension.

Something beyond articulation

related to power.

[mellow music playing]

♪ Can't you see ♪

♪ I am here ♪

♪ Trying to get through the lonely times ♪

[Nicky] I was born in Kermanshah,

close to Iraqi border.

My father was an army man.

[Firooz] Father was hard on us.

I don't like to call him, at this time, dictator,

but he was.

He was... He-he loved discipline.

[Nicky] I was the oldest of the boys.

So anything happens, I was responsible.

So I would get the punishment.

♪ Always fear ♪

♪ And disappear ♪

[Sara] I remember you always had nightmares.

[Nicky] Yes.

[Nicky]

[laughs]

[Sara] Wow. [laughs]

Thief!

[Nicky] I am happy

with the darkness that is in me.

I might show it in my painting, the harshness,

but in real life,

I try to be much nicer

as much as I can.

-What is this? -This is...

The best move? There is no best move.

Our downward dogs.

[indistinct lyrics]

-Please. -Yes!

♪ Can't you help me out... ♪

So like this?

[Nicky] Okay, [indistinct].

♪ My biggest fear ♪

♪ But sometimes, nightmares happen ♪

[music fades]

I got a name for him.

Okay, what name?

The guy who has been there for 40 years.

-Uh-huh. -And he knows about the show.

[in Farsi]

[filmmaker]

[Sara]

[tense music playing]

[Sara in English] When Nickzad was in

the Iranian Student Association,

did the group ever talk about a revolution?

[Nahid] They were mentioning

the head of the religion in Paris

by the name of Khomeini.

[reporter] The voice that may well decide

the future of the country

comes not from Tehran but from Paris.

Ayatollah Khomeini,

a man the Western governments

may shortly have to learn to deal with.

But Khomeini says he does not want power.

He simply wants the Shah to go.

[Nahid] This was during the time

that, every day in Iran,

people were gathering.

Thousands and thousands and thousands.

Men putting their children over their shoulder

and teaching them to say, "Marg bar Shah, Marg bar Shah."

"Death to Shah."

[crowd chanting]

[reporter] The world had never before seen anything like this.

The ruler of an oil-rich country

and strategic ally of the West

on the brink of being toppled by a revolution.

Iranian streets were seized by massive protests.

[crowd chanting]

[crowd cheering]

During that time, Nickzad couldn't take it anymore.

He said, "I have to be there."

He was completely flared up

with this uprising,

and he just didn't want to miss it.

So Nickzad decided to go back to Iran

and help the leftists.

And he told me, "Go on your way

because I don't know what's gonna happen to me,

and this is going to be the end of our marriage."

At that time,

you were like four, five years old.

You were feeling the tension,

and I thought maybe if I take you from New York

to a warmer place, maybe you'll feel better.

So we went to Florida and he went to Iran.

[intense music playing]

[intense, dramatic vocalizations]

-[music calming] -[crowd clamoring]

[Nicky] By the time I got to Tehran,

it was already huge demonstration,

and right away I joined the crowd.

-[crowd shouting] -[intense music playing]

It was tremendous.

So emotional.

I was at every protest.

I was everywhere.

[Sara] At that time,

Nahid and I would watch the news at night,

and I remember there was one time

there was some man on a car

screaming into the protest,

and I only-- you could see only his back,

and I was like, "That's Nickzad! That's Nickzad!"

I looked for you in the news.

[gunfire]

[explosion]

[gunfire]

Was there ever a time where you were scared?

[Nicky] There was bullets all the time

there was a demonstration.

[shouting]

-[gunshots] -[telephone ringing]

[Sara] But you never thought, "Maybe I should just stay home"?

[Nicky] No.

This was the important thing

that we were looking for.

So why should I stay home?

[Sara] How often would you talk to Nahid?

Every... couple of months.

It was difficult to really make a phone call.

-[Sara] Every couple of months? -Yeah.

[Sara] It thought it would... like once a week.

Did you miss me?

No.

[Sara] Apparently not,

if you only called once every two months.

[dramatic music playing]

[Nicky] The revolution brought a lot of people

from different persuasion

under one umbrella.

Intellectuals, religious people,

liberals, Marxists, and students.

[crowd chanting]

[chanting continues]

[reporter] The crowd shouted, "Death to the Shah."

Among the despised symbols of their monarch,

the marchers raised pictures of the Shah's antagonist,

the bearded, fierce-eyed holy man, Ayatollah Khomeini.

[reporter 2] A tearful Shah of Iran

left his country today on a vacation

from which he may never return.

[crowd chanting]

[reporter 1] The Shah's departure

made Ayatollah Khomeini, in effect,

the new ruler of Iran.

[dramatic music playing]

[indistinct shouting]

[Nicky]

Khomeini had this white beard

which was to make him much more...

-[in Farsi] -[Sara in English] Godlike.

[Nicky] The portrait that I did,

I made it totally black.

[projector clicking]

He represented the idea of Islam

the way he wanted everybody to follow.

[projector clicking]

Oh.

This is hypocrisy

of Islamic Republic of Iran.

[crowd chanting]

[Sara] What happened to the people

who were not religious protestors?

[Nicky]

[tense music playing]

It was heartbreaking.

[gunfire]

After revolution,

we-we got the taste

of the harsh, harsh dictatorship.

We had the Shah's dictatorship, and that was bad,

but it was nothing compared to the Islamic dictatorship.

[reporter] The American embassy in Tehran

is in the hands of Muslim students tonight.

They stormed the embassy

and took dozens of American hostages.

The students want the deposed Shah

returned to Iran for trial.

[crowd chanting]

[Nahid] Nickzad understood that these fanatic people,

they are not gonna give up.

And actually, he was arrested.

[Sara] You said it was one of the first

anti-revolution demonstrations.

[Nicky] I was in a demonstration,

but I escaped through the alleys,

but the alley was blocked.

There was a door behind me,

but the door was closed.

So they got me with the bayonet

just in front of my chest.

So they start beating me.

They took me to glass prison.

Actually, we were convicted of 100 lashes, all of us.

Like 170 people

in a room like this.

We couldn't even sleep, just stand up

until the next morning.

Then they took us to the courtyard.

[Sara] Did you know him already?

[Nicky] Yeah, of course.

Khomeini picked him up

as the Chief Justice of the revolution at that time.

So he would go to west of Iran

to the Kurdish area in the morning,

execute like 20, 25 people.

[gunfire]

The next morning, go to the center of Iran,

hang other people.

That's why he was famous for being "Hanging Judge."

[reporter] Khalkhali was so proud of his achievements

that he had this film made of himself in action.

The prisoners seen here

have already been condemned to death.

Their hair and mustaches are partly shaven

to give them a humiliating and grotesque appearance.

[speaking Farsi]

[Nicky in English] I thought that I won't be alive

after 100 lashes,

but when he left, they were tired,

they couldn't beat up all these 170 people,

so at the end, they said, "Sign a paper

that you're not going to participate in any demonstration

against the Islamic Republic.

And if you do, execution right away, anyplace."

It's a kind of similar letter

that I signed with the previous regime.

So they cut my hair from this way and this way,

and they let... they let me go to the streets.

[Sara] It was like a way to humiliate you.

[Nicky] Exactly.

And after that, did you join any other protests?

Yeah, of course.

Oh, so you did? After... after this,

-you still went out? -Yeah, of course.

That was not the revolution that we wanted.

The justice that we fought for

is not happening here.

This was much worse than what we had.

[Sara] When was the first time you heard

that the Museum of Contemporary Art

wanted to show his work?

He called me,

and he said,

uh, "This is gonna happen."

And none of his work was pro-revolution.

It was all anti-revolution.

[Nicky in Farsi]

[in English] Remember, we fought for democracy.

My position at that time was

we had the right to criticize

the behavior of the government.

I didn't have a, um, gun in my hand.

[tense music playing]

[Sara] You seem to be

the only person that we know

that was at the exhibition in 1980

at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art.

That's right.

[Sara] Can you tell us a little bit about that?

I went to the museum and I saw Nicky's work.

A lot of works. You know, I remember, it was huge.

There were two or three rooms,

and they were covered with paintings.

It was the image of Khomeini.

Khomeini was usually portrayed as a saint,

and in these paintings, he was a man,

and an angry man.

Everything else was blood and fury.

[Nicky] The opening was Tuesday.

So I went out, got the paper,

and I read it, and I read it, and I read it,

and I didn't believe this is happening.

It was saying

how, from the garbages of United States,

I came back to Iran

and I stabbed the revolution from the back.

They also printed

one of the images of the painting.

On the right side of the painting,

there are two groups fighting,

the left and the right.

Then there's a graveyard

of a Kurdish guy

that has been executed,

and Khomeini

and Hanging Judge Khalkhali

is coming towards the viewer.

Any blood that is coming down

is coming from the path of Khomeini and Khalkhali.

So it was really a harsh criticism.

[speaking Farsi]

[Nicky in English] Friday prayer,

bunch of people attacked the museum to get the painting.

[in Farsi]

[crowd chanting]

[in English] Saturday, a friend of mine called me and said,

"Get out of the country as fast as you can."

[Sara] What would happen if he was arrested at that time?

[Nahid] They would have killed him.

[air raid siren blaring]

-[artillery whistling] -[bomb exploding]

[Nicky] I was out from the airport nine o'clock.

Twelve o'clock, Saddam Hussein attacked same airport.

[reporter] In one of the first acts of war on September 22nd,

Iraqi planes attacked Mehrabad Airport

outside Tehran,

an apparent effort to knock out Iran's air force on the ground.

The crisis brought with it a new surge of patriotism.

[Nicky] The war established the Islamic Republic

because they were able to unite everybody

and kill whoever was against the regime.

[Nahid] He was extremely lucky

to have got out of Tehran

exactly at the right moment.

He directly came to Miami.

[waves lapping]

[gulls calling]

[Nicky] When I finally got to America,

it was just wasting time, nothing.

I couldn't work. I couldn't...

I couldn't do anything.

And I couldn't go back either.

So it was a rough time.

[Nahid] He came to his senses

that, "My family is worth it,

and I need to go to my family."

Maybe. I don't know.

[Sara] But then when he got to his family, he couldn't get rid

-of all the anger. -No, he couldn't.

He always had the anger.

He always was unsatisfied.

He had a revolution in himself.

[soft music playing]

-Oh, wow. -Wow.

[Nicky] I came back from Tehran.

-Yeah. -So I started this series.

I was working every day in Miami.

[Helena] Wow.

-Is that Sara? -That's Sara.

I want to hear what brought all of this

out of you in one year.

I was so angry.

I was so disappointed

that there was nothing else I can do.

Just do the painting.

[Helena] Sara, what do you remember from Miami?

[Sara] So much of my memory

comes from his paintings, actually.

It was a tough time.

He hated Miami.

He hated being there. He hated the whole vibe.

In Iran, hundred... hundreds of people

I would meet every day.

Planning, going to the demonstration,

organizing, making posters.

Then you come to Miami, it's dead.

It was such... such a shock.

I... I was losing my mind.

[soft music playing]

[Sara] My mother really liked it.

[birds chirping]

But he convinced her to go back to New York.

[dramatic piano music playing]

♪ Sometimes happiness is sad ♪

♪ When I looked into your eyes ♪

♪ I know you never meant it bad ♪

What is it?

♪ It was all just fun ♪

♪ You know this can't go on forever ♪

♪ Not like this ♪

♪ I'm too tired, I'm too sober ♪

♪ For this shit ♪

♪ I don't want you to be the one, oh yeah... ♪

You have to do an Instagram post.

-[Nicky] We do it. -Every two weeks,

post what you're working on.

-[Nicky laughs] -Like this,

this painting is gonna...

People are gonna be interested in that.

I can't put that on...

[Sara] Why can't you put that on Instagram?

[Nika] Weird, prostituting woman.

-[Nicky] Okay. -And I think

it's because the men have been ruling the women in Iran

to wear chadors,

and now the woman is taking over this man.

She's wearing like all this stuff to scare him,

and then he's... she's gonna whip him.

Beautiful. That was, uh,

that's the idea. [chuckles]

[filmmaker in Farsi]

[Nicky]

[gate creaking]

[filmmaker]

[dramatic electronic music playing]

[Sara]

[Mahmoud]

[ominous music playing]

[music fades]

[Sara in English] Did you have any, um,

regret in advance of the show?

Did you think maybe it's not a good idea?

I did... I told the head of that museum

that, "Listen, I'm not looking for any problem."

[Sara] I looked up the museum director.

In this 1979 New York Times article,

Masud Shafie Monfared is mentioned

as the head of the museum.

[Nicky] Right.

I'd love to find that guy

and talk to him about, like, what he saw,

why he thought it was a good idea

to, um, curate his work.

[filmmaker in Farsi]

[Sara in English] Masud D. Monfared.

I have a phone number.

-[phone ringing] -[Masud] Hello?

Is this Mr. Monfared?

-[Masud] Yes, speaking. Yes. -Salam.

So my question for you is,

were you the former curator

at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art?

[Masud] Yes, yes, I was.

-You-- -I was the director, yes.

You're kidding me.

-No. -No. [laughs]

This is crazy because I've been, um,

kind of searching for you.

How are you?

-What's up? -What's up?

[Sara] He lives in Sacramento.

He still goes back to Iran.

[Nicky]

What does he know,

anything about this interview?

[Sara] Very little.

I haven't said anything about what happened.

I've heard the story so many times in my life,

and there's always so many different versions.

-Uh-huh. -[Sara in Farsi]

[in English] And this is an effort

to pull those pieces together

to see what happened.

Yeah, I... I don't recall.

You know, I have to think, go to back memories.

And you don't remember the pieces,

what may have happened to the pieces?

I don't know. I don't remember anything. Yeah.

Do you remember how you first came across Nickzad's artwork?

[Masud] He was a young man, and he was, uh...

a little shy person,

and, you know, he asked me,

"Can I participate also?"

I said, "Yeah, you can."

[Till] If he tried to now get the work back,

would he have a chance to get it back?

I believe so. I believe... If it's his.

I would just basically go to Iran to challenge them.

"Well, you know, I did this at a time I was thinking like this.

I think differently now," or whatever, you know?

[Till] But part of the problem is

he doesn't necessarily think differently.

[knocking]

Salam!

[speaking Farsi]

[Nicky in English] It's been like 42 years.

Yes.

I have an Islamic Republican newspaper.

[Masud] Really?

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Nicky] This is the painting that was in the show,

because after this article,

you took that painting out of the museum.

I did?

-You told me. -Okay, okay.

-The story is... -[laughing]

-It's your story. -Okay, okay.

[Nicky] Because after Friday prayer,

the mob attacked museum.

So you said to me,

uh, "Why don't you write an answer to this article?"

-Mm-hmm. -I said I would do it,

and I gave it to you.

-Mm-hmm. -You said,

"No. We don't do it because

this would be an excuse for them

to attack the museum."

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[Nicky] Meantime, another friend of mine called me

and said, "Get out of the country

as soon as you can."

-Really? -Really.

So you changed your life because of this article?

-Because of this article. -Wow. [laughs]

So my question for 42 years was,

do you remember what happened to this painting?

Uh, I don't know. I have no idea.

I don't recall,

uh, any of these, actually.

This is my first time.

There were so many topics and subjects

was going on at the same time.

I-I don't remember your show.

So what's wrong with this painting anyway?

-[laughs] -[Nicky] You read the...

Read the article and not the painting, yeah.

Well, it was good to see you after 43 years.

[gulls calling]

[melancholic music playing]

When he says he doesn't remember,

-do you believe that? -I don't... I don't believe.

It's...

It's out of, uh...

Beyond me to believe that

because it's impossible.

And the other thing that he said,

I asked him to have a show.

Right.

[Nicky] Never, ever.

Never, ever I asked him.

Let's just say, tomorrow,

somebody from the Islamic Republic of Iran

watched the film,

he's gotta come across looking good.

[Nicky] I think...

-his concern... -He's gotta...

His concern is that.

[indistinct shouting]

[solemn music playing]

[woman in Farsi]

[reporter] After eight years of relative moderation

under Hassan Rouhani,

his successor is expected to take a sharp conservative turn.

[reporter 2] Two internationally acclaimed

Iranian film directors

have been detained by authorities

for criticizing the government

over a violent crackdown.

[Nicky in Farsi]

[Nicky in English]

[in Farsi]

[Sara]

[Nicky]

[in English] They might send messages.

Don't respond.

[Nicky coughs] Okay.

[in Farsi]

[filmmaker]

[Nicky in English] Well, I don't blame. It's dangerous.

I said it to you a long time ago.

I don't think anybody would do it.

[in Farsi]

[in English] Bahmanpour has said, "Stay back.

It's not a good time.

Stay for like... stay away for three, four months.

Let's see what's happened to this new regime."

So Bahmanpour is still there?

[Nicky] He's still there, but it's...

They are... they are waiting to see

what the new regime is going to be.

They don't know whether it's going

to really cut down everything.

[solemn music playing]

[Sara] You always say,

"If I had a normal life,

things would be different."

What would a normal life have looked like for you?

I would stay in Iran.

I would have been a teacher,

continue as an artist,

get a wife, couple of childrens.

That's it.

And you think you would've been content with that kind of life?

What do you mean?

I guess I'm trying to figure out,

if you were to do it all over again,

would you do it exactly the same way?

No.

[Sara] That museum exhibition

kind of changed the trajectory of our lives.

If the revolution hadn't happened...

[Nahid] Yes. We could have been...

uh, very happy family.

But...

Nickzad was always a revolutionary inside,

and he couldn't...

Nothing in this world could have make him calm.

[melancholic music playing]

After we came back to New York,

we had absolutely no money.

My parents had moved to the United States.

We stayed in my parents' house.

My father had a clothing store,

so I went to work there.

We rented a small apartment.

The bedroom was dedicated

as a studio for both of us.

[Sara] Though I had a room.

[Nahid] It wasn't a room. It was some kind of

small dining area.

You slept there and we slept in the living room. Yes.

-I remember that apartment. -[Nahid] Yeah.

When Nickzad was involved with his painting,

he was in heaven.

But when he was not,

he was not a calm person.

[Sara] Why were you so angry?

[Nicky] I didn't want to be here.

I couldn't do the job that I want to do here

at the beginning.

It was a lot of, um, you know,

a lot of rejection.

[Nahid] Iranian artists were doomed

after the revolution.

After capturing the hostages,

nobody respected us anymore.

He has this much of rejection letters

from galleries.

Nobody would buy our art.

So one of us should have make money.

And when we created the textile design studio,

he also worked at that studio,

but he was always complaining

that, "You're taking my time from my painting

and doing nonsense."

I said, "This nonsense, at least,

it's providing us."

But he didn't want to do that.

[Till] Sara often asked him,

"Why is it that everybody speaks so highly of Nicky,

and Nicky is this and Nicky is that,

and such a kind man,"

but that wasn't necessarily her experience?

Uh-huh. Okay.

[Sara] Right, like every time I... "Nicky!"

Sara Jan,

that hurts me

because, actually, nobody knows him.

I don't want to put him down.

-You're not putting him down. -Okay.

Everybody is complicated.

People are nuanced,

and it's a little bit of an underst--

What we're trying to do is understand, like, what happened.

[somber music playing]

[sniffling softly]

This is you.

When was this taken?

[Nicky] How old are you, 11, 10?

[Sara] Yeah.

One of the one times we went camping

-together. -[Nicky] Yes.

This is you.

[Sara] It's us.

[Nicky] Okay, it's us.

[Sara] So when you see, like, pictures of Nahid,

do you feel like...

sadness that it didn't work between you guys?

Or...

what do you... like, what do you feel?

Of course that's... that's the feeling.

This is the picture, um, that...

No, this is not the one.

-Huh? 'Cause... -I said...

I said, "Of course."

[Sara] Okay.

-Nahid. -I'm really trying to get

something out of you,

but you really... you hold it together

when it comes to the marriage.

What do you want me to tell?

I don't know, like, I... I...

I'm trying to figure out your feelings.

[laughing]

[Nicky] Twenty years after,

you can't have the same feeling that you had before.

What... what do you mean?

[Nicky] If... if, for example,

you were in love at the beginning, when you...

[melancholic music playing]

[sniffles]

[softly] Okay.

I still have this, the teddy bear.

That's... that is my favorite teddy bear.

That's you. Show it to... to Till.

-Okay. -Okay. [laughs]

[sniffles]

[in Farsi]

-Is this enough for you? -Yeah, that's... [laughs]

[Sara sniffles]

[Sara in Farsi]

[in English] He had to do what he had to do

to get where he is today.

I don't blame him, I don't blame my mother.

They were learning.

They were adjusting to life,

to disappointments.

[in Farsi]

[in English] Right?

[in Farsi]

[in English] Right?

[in Farsi]

[in English] The ten steps that he was able to take,

she wasn't able to take it

because she was trying to figure things out.

She was trying to figure out life.

[Nahid in Farsi]

[Sara in English] What advice would you give

to her younger self?

No marriage. [laughs]

Don't get married.

So her parents were right?

I think they were right.

I think they were right.

If it wasn't for me,

she would probably had a better life.

I changed a lot of life around myself,

and not all of them for better.

I made a lot of people unhappy.

Then, later on, I realized what I had done.

[Sara] And then you had guilt about it.

A lot of guilt.

[in Farsi]

[Sara in English] Okay.

[Nicky] The man in the jacket is my father.

He died about 20 years ago.

My mother's name is Zeshad.

Great woman.

She died...

15 years ago. I wasn't there.

I talked to her the night before she died,

and I told her I would come,

and she said, "Don't come.

We're not looking for trouble."

[soft, moody music playing]

This is Mezhad, my older sister.

With her husband driving from north to Tehran,

there was an accident and...

I'm sorry.

She's gone.

This is Behrus.

He was part of revolution.

They threw him out,

and he became addict...

and died a year ago in nursing home.

[inhales deeply]

This is Faroh.

[inhales deeply]

He was addict

to heroin

and committed suicide.

This is Saheed.

Saheed was in United States.

He become an architect.

He was living in the street for 25 years.

He died

couple of years ago, two years ago.

And this box...

his ashes.

This is Firooz.

He's living in Long Island,

and he teaches at the community college.

And that's me.

[video call ringing]

[Sara in Farsi]

Ooh.

Good.

[rapid vocalizations]

[Sara in English] Hey!

[Nicky] Hey, Sara Jan.

[Sara] So what's up?

[Nicky] Apparently they talk

right away yesterday.

Who talked?

[in Farsi]

[in English] Okay.

[in Farsi]

[in English] Okay, that's fantastic.

And how are you, my love?

How are you?

[in Farsi]

-[in English] We just... -[indistinct]

[laughing]

-Hey, [indistinct]. -Hi.

I heard about the paintings.

Yes. I never thought that we can make it that fast.

You ready?

[trills lips] I wish I could go!

[laughs]

[music ending]

[Mahmoud in Farsi]

[tense music playing]

[Sara in English] Good morning, Nickzad Jan.

Oh, shit.

-[Nicky in Farsi] -[English] Three notifications.

You have a bunch of notifications.

[indistinct chatter]

[in Farsi]

[Sara] Mahmoud...

[Nicky]

-[cell phone ringing] -[Sara]

[Nicky]

[Nicky]

[Mahmoud]

[in English] Okay, photos, photos, photos, photos.

-Self-portrait. -[Nicky] Ooh.

[gentle music playing]

Oh, he got a lot of pictures.

[Nicky] I don't remember any of these.

Maybe one or two.

A lot of images of the clerics...

-That are not in these. -...they're... they're not here.

They took out the images with the clerics.

I think so.

This is one, for example.

[Sara] Yeah, I mean, this is like with the people.

Right, but I... I had other... other ones

that was more critical.

So, I don't see them in here.

[camera shutter clicks]

[indistinct chatter]

[music fades]

[dramatic music playing]

[chanting]

[reporter] Protests across Iran have been going on now

for more than a month,

women taking off their headscarves

and cutting their hair in a sign of protest.

[shouting]

[Nicky]

[in Farsi]

[chanting]

[in English] They are facing light, they are facing freedom,

for... for freedom in Iran.

[Luca] It's very nice.

-[Nahid laughs] -You made this?

-Yes. -I didn't know that.

[mellow acoustic guitar music playing]

Hey, Khamenei,

we have a song for you and your mullahs.

♪ You've kept this country a prison for 40 years ♪

♪ We're sick and tired of this terror and the cost ♪

♪ Too many women and children all being killed ♪

♪ Do you really think you'll get away with this? ♪

[strumming long chords]

[Nicky] I made a poster last night.

If the museum sees that poster,

they never give us back the work.

[Sara] So why do you put the poster out?

I just want to see their reaction.

But you're not gonna see their reaction.

You're just not gonna get your work back.

At least I said what I want to say.

♪ Sisters in Iran, we stand with all of you ♪

♪ 'Cause women like freedom, it's true ♪

♪ Let us stand together and spell it out ♪

♪ A-B-C-D-E fuck you ♪

[crowd shouting, chanting]

[chanting fades]

[tranquil music playing]

-[Nicky] Yeah, it is... -[Sara] It's beautiful.

It's kind of amazing that this is from an iPhone photo.

Okay.

[crowd chattering]

[tranquil music continues]

[inaudible dialogue]

[door opens]

Hey! [laughing]

[speaking Farsi]

[Nahid in English] Beautiful.

[inaudible dialogue]

-Cheers. -Really nice space.

Cheers.

[music fades]

[footsteps approaching]

[gentle music playing]

[music intensifies with dramatic vocalizations]

[music and vocalizations fade]