History puts all totalitarian regimes face to face with the voice of one, and one single person, who stands and dares to say “ENOUGH”. It can be a group but because it panics, the system reacts by focusing on one individual. It is as if every tyranny needs a mirror to see how far it can take its absurdity and irrationality. The arrogance of a machine of oppression is confronted with a peaceful and weak individual. The stronger a dictatorship is, the more fragile it is. At the same time the weaker a rebel is, the more dangerous he/she is. We have known this since Gandhi stood up to the colonial British Empire. The world also witnessed this with the fight of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese activist who defied the Junta of her country and who is now on her way to putting an end to a reign of decades of terror. That is how political heroes are born.
´The arrogance of a machine of oppression is confronted with a peaceful and weak individual. The stronger a dictatorship is, the more fragile it is. At the same time the weaker a rebel is, the more dangerous he/she is.´
As I write this, there are still people who engage in a fight for freedom. Two figures of resistance for culture and politics headline the news almost every day. One is the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei and the other is the Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Both of them are internationally recognised artists and symbols of their respective national glory. Ai Weiwei as a matter of fact, contributed to the construction of the Beijing stadium which hosted the Olympic Games of 2008. As for Jafar Panahi he is one of the symbols of contemporary Iranian cinema and probably one of the most successful Iranian filmmakers. At the same time both of them have always openly criticised the totalitarian regimes in their countries, thinking that their reputation offers them some form of protection and gives them a sense of responsibility towards their nationals.
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