Reflecting on Jerry and Me

Professor Mehrnaz Saeedvafa of Columbia College, Chicago, discusses her film  Jerry and Me

CSAMES hosted the first Middle East Film Festival this spring, featuring seven documentaries and six feature films on the Arab world and Iran.  All films were free and open to the pubic.

The Film Festival was funded in part by a grant from the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language program, International Studies Division of the U.S. Department of Education. 

Students of the ARAB/SAME 150 Arab Spring course share their reflections on three of the films below.

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By Sarah Elnawasrah

Jerry Lewis, an iconic comedian in Hollywood, left a profound impression on Mehrnaz Saeedvafa as a young Iranian girl. Saeedvafa grows up in a tumultuous family, however she has fond memories of watching the movies every Saturday with her father and grew to love Lewis and his comedic role in all of his movies. In Jerry and Me, Saeedvafa explores her intimate relationship with Hollywood cinema and specifically Jerry Lewis. She interweaves political happenings of Iran as well as her move to the U.S. with clips from Jerry Lewis’ movies. The film comes to light when Saeedvafa sees Lewis in person and she feels a sort of dissonance between what she felt Lewis represented and how he really conducted himself. Ironically, some of his comedic scenes represent deep and personal moments of her life. This overlap of Lewis and Saeedvafa’s voice create a sort of dual-symbolism whereby her current troubles and obstacles are represented through an old Hollywood scene.


Interestingly, The Circle’s director, Jafar Panahi, was one of Saeedvafa’s students in Iran. Panahi creates a powerful image of what it is like to be a woman in modern-day Iran. While the characters he uses are ex-convicts who have just escaped from prison, their problems and obstacles are all too common. As the movie goes on, the narrative switches and the audience observes the different circumstances and life decisions each woman has made. The Circle touches on controversial issues such as pregnancy and abortion, prostitution, and ostracism. The movie comes full circle when we see the pregnant woman from the first scene in the closing scene.            


The Circle and Jerry and Me shed light on personal stories that could happen in Iran or related to Iranian life. Specifically, both films highlight women’s roles and issues in Iran. Saeedvafa touches on her mother’s struggles with her abusive father and her role as a foreign mother with a son in America. In addition, she highlights the U.S.’s political role while living in Iran as well as Iran’s role while living in the U.S. The Circle on the other hand uncovers uncomfortable truths and realities women in Iran face. The film provides foreign audiences with real life issues that could be applicable in any other nation. All in all, The Circle and Jerry and Me are unique in their honesty and relatability.

Sarah Elnawasrah is a junior double majoring in Psychology and Global Studies with minors in Arabic and French.