Rebecca Pelleri in The Box in New York and soon also in Italy

His stage presence, the strength of his muscles, the expressiveness of his movements, the beauty and power of his plastic poses, alone tell of all the anguish that violated, trampled upon and vilified human rights induce in the political prisoners of the ayatollahs in Iran. Rebecca Pelleri, who studied among other things at Marta Graham in New York, succeeds in the very difficult task of making all this credible on stage. And she does it very well.

Azan, the call to prayer

In Iran, political prisoners are forced to listen to the call to prayer Azan. Or the anguished cries of fellow prisoners. Or, again, the absolute and disturbing silence. “Solitary confinement, says choreographer Tina Bararian, “is a deeply distressing ordeal for political prisoners in Iran, it has a negative effect on the mental and physical health of prisoners. In this state, their auditory experience is limited to those only three experiences, while their movements and space are limited within a restricted environment.”

Time is still and boundless

Rebecca Pelleri, with the call to prayer that is obsessively repeated, reproduces with her movements the anguish of those who no longer know how time moves.

Survival mode

The Box analyzes the transformation of human instincts from natural to survival mode. “Some prisoners, like Toomaj (an Iranian rapper), suffer severe torture, while others, like Vahid Afkari, have been in solitary confinement for 1,000 days,” Bararian further explains.

A form of torture

Azan it is the call to prayer; “It is a beautiful and eloquent song of praise to God,” says Bararian. “Allahu Akbar it means God is great. The government uses these prayers as a form of torture for some of these political prisoners; this torture was widely used in the 1980s. Dancing prayers is considered a sin by extremists, as these prayers are considered divine and should not be associated with any dance or artistic movement.”