Alex & Ali
Director: Malachi Leopold
Writer: Malachi Leopold
Part of: identities Festival
Seen on: 20.6.2015

Plot:
Leopold’s uncle Alex was a Peace Corp volunteer and 10 years from the late 60s on in Iran. There, he fell in love with Ali and vice versa. But with the political developments, Alex had to leave Iran and return to the USA. Ever since, he hasn’t seen Ali, who stayed in Iran, anymore, although they are still in contact by phone and letter. Now after 35 years of separation, they want to meet again and prepare everything for a trip to Turkey. Leopold decided to document all of that.

The story of Alex and Ali touches on many difficulties, but most of all it hammers home how incredibly unfair the world can be. I was very touched by its story, though the outcome wasn’t necessarily unexpected.

[SPOILERS – if you can talk about spoilers when it comes to a documentary]

From the beginning of the story, I couldn’t imagine that things would go well for Alex and Ali. 35 years of not really being with each other is a long time to build up expectations, stylizing the other person into the perfect human being, the perfect partner you could wish for and not being made aware of their faults just by the simple fact that you don’t spend time together to see them. With all those pent-up emotions and super-high expectations, reality will have a very hard time to live up to any of it and is bound to be disappointing. That is exactly what happend with Alex and Ali – confronted with their real selves, and not the part on the other end of a telephone line or the letter-writing partner, both realize that the other isn’t quite as wonderful as they made them to be.

That doesn’t mean that I didn’t hope that it would turn out to be different. That the 10 years they spent together in person would have been enough to cement a development of both in the same direction in the following 35 years. But sadly, it was not to be – and their bitter disappointment at the fact was almost more heartbreaking than the fact itself.

But Alex & Ali is not simply a story about a separated couple: homosexuality is illegal in Iran. Generally speaking criticism of the regime or any kind of dissidence is harshly punished. Ali is not only at risk for being in love with a man; coming from that kind of political climate, he can’t even bring himself to identify as gay – the only way he would have gotten asylum and a visa for the USA. And since his suitcase containing sensitive documents was searched at the airport in Teheran, asylum would have been extremely important. But Ali, maybe not believing that anything bad would actually happen to him, maybe preferring to risk his safety than give up his family, decides to go back to Iran – and is promptly arrested and tortured.

We are left to imagine how things would have gone if Alex and Ali had been able to live out their relationship openly and safely wherever they chose. Maybe they would have separated two years later, maybe they would have their life together. But in any case it’s incredibly injust that they never got their chance to find out. And Malachi’s film, despite certain lengths and certain weird voice over parts, is a powerful testament to that injustice.

Summarizing: If you’re looking for a good cry.