The Art of a Movie Protest

Some movies draw protests. 300 is also drawing drawings.

The renderings of ancient Persian rulers, warriors and landscapes at the Project 300 Website (300themovie.info) are themselves a form of protest, an outlet for artists who believe the hit movie about the historic clash at the Battle of Thermopylae demonizes the Persian camp.

To Pendar Yousefi, the 26-year-old Iranian-born Canadian engineer and artist who launched the site last week, combating art with art made the most sense to his sensibilities.

"We want to tell the world that even though we object to the historical inaccuracies and the overwhelmingly negative portrayal of Persians in 300," Yousefi said Thursday via email, "we still appreciate the art that has gone into the making of this film and can distinguish between these two."

The year's first blockbuster, 300 has grossed nearly $100 million worldwide since opening last Friday, per Box Office Mojo. The film has been met with mixed notices from movie critics in the states, and, more notably, rebukes from officials and press in Iran, formerly known as Persia.

On its Website, the Iranian-based Taliya News slammed 300 as a "hateful movie" and a cog in the "U.S. propaganda machine."

Along the same line, a man identified by Daily Variety as a cultural adviser to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called the movie "part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological warfare aimed at Iranian culture."

300, a stylized rendering of Frank Miller's 1999 graphic novel of the same name, has not opened in Iran; all Hollywood movies have been banned there. But according to Variety, DVDs are making the rounds, and, in the words of an unnamed Iranian producer, "people are quite angry."

The mood is not unique to Iran. On the Web, a petition drafted by an archaeologist based at the University of Alberta in Canada, and seeking an apology from Warner Bros., the studio behind 300, has gathered more than 50,000 names.

"I saw the trailers and the commercials, basically. Then I watched the movie. That basically triggered me to do the petition," Hamed Vahdati Nasab said Wednesday. "That was quite enough."

Nasab's objections seem to stem as much from his academic background as from his personal background (he was born in Iran). He finds 300's depiction of the Spartans to be accurate; he finds its depiction of the Persians to be "irresponsible."

In its lone statement on the controversy, Warners defended the movie as a "work of fiction inspired by the Frank Miller graphic novel and loosely based on an historic event." It said the movie was not meant to disparage or advance a political cause.

Nasab is still hoping for "a simple apology—everybody makes mistakes." In the meantime, he's not subscribing to the "work of fiction" argument.

"There is a difference between fiction and history," Nasab said. "This is part of history did happen. This battle did happen."

Like Nasab, Yousefi fears audiences are viewing the movie as a history lesson.

"Already, I have spoken with many of my friends whose only knowledge of the history of the Persian empire and the Persian wars has been formed by this movie," Yousefi said, "and who vehemently believe that the movie is historically accurate."

Like Nasab, Yousefi finds 300 to be historically inaccurate and offensive. He hopes his Project 300 effort will balance out the picture.

"There are so many talented artists, of Persian descent or otherwise, who have created art that shows a more fair and accurate picture of Persia and its culture," Yousefi said.

As of Thursday, the site featured 16 works—from a sweeping portrait of ancient Persia to cartoon sketches. Yousefi said he might gather the works offline for gallery showings in Toronto and beyond.

Said Yousefi: "If it is one point I would like to get across [it] is that we are not an angry bunch."

Just artists.