Monday 8 November 2010

Hey, Ayatollah, Leave Those kids Alone!




Have a look at this exciting remake on Pink Floyd’s classic “Another Brick in the Wall” – still so relevant today in too many places around the world.  In this version by Canada-based band Blurred Vision, the singers have slightly reworked the lyrics  to produce a new cry for defiance of the authoritarian regime of Iran. “Leave Those Kids Alone” has become an underground anthem in Iran, where young people are breaking the Internet blockade to watch it.

Pink Floyd founder Roger Waters gave Blurred Vision,  two exiled Iranian brothers living in Toronto, permission to tinker with the song for use as an anthem for young Iranians. He said in a statement that he sees the band as playing a vital part in "the resistance to a regime that is both repressive and brutal” and encourages artists to use the song to resist all forms of oppression elsewhere in the world.

The Blurred Vision brothers — 28-year-old Sepp and 35-year-old Sohl — hope the song will elicit solidarity for Iranians fighting for freedom. They haven’t made their last name public because of concern for the wellbeing of family members in Iran.

The video for the song, directed by acclaimed filmmaker Babak Payami, includes footage from the 2009 Iranian “Green Revolution”, the mass uprising which followed the contested presidential election. At least 36 people died during the protests, thousands were arrested and hundreds are still in prison today – many being tortured.

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