I Am Not Political / Sasan Behroozian

Sasan Behroozian was born in 1969 in Iran, he is a writer, actor and director. His formative experiences in theatre and film were in Iran.  Behroozian was the dubbing director in ‘Tehran Taboo’ (DATE) and also an actor and production consultant in ‘We Are Free’ (DATE). Behroozian’s novel, ‘I Am Not Into Politics/ Political’ (2019) published by Pendaar, is available in Farsi and English. His short film ‘Release’, (DATE) was shortlisted in different categories at various festivals and won the award for Best International Actor at the Manchester Short Film Festival.

I started wandering through the streets imagining things that could happen on our date. I was lost in my thought when, to my utter disbelief, I found myself in front of the store where I went to buy milk some twenty years ago. In no time I was there inside the place. Almost everything about it had changed, but I still saw the same old pictures in front of me. One moment I was in the middle of the protestors: another moment I was hit on the head with a baton lying unconscious on the street.

“Good day sir,” said the storekeeper bringing me back to the real world. I took a quick at him; the same guy some twenty years older. It was as if I was travelling back in time. Having my eyes fixed on him I left the store without say a word. I started going in the direction of our old home. The route I had thought of for all those years in prison and didn’t want to take one more time. Then I was there, in front of the house I used to live in twenty years ago.

I didn’t hesitate to ring the bell. A little while later a window on the second floor opened and a young woman asked me who I was looking for.