Photo by Antoin Sevruguin (1830s-1933)

Text by Sohrab Saadat Ladjevardi

The last time I went to a Zurkhane (or Zorkhana or Zourkhaneh lit. “house of strength”, the traditional gymnasium of urban Persia and adjacent lands) in Teheran was when I was a teenager. 42 years ago? At that  time I still lived in Germany. And every year during my summer school vacation I visited my family in Teheran. During my stay there I spent mostly of my time in the bazaar, museums, mosques, Teheran’s red-light district, went up the Elbrus Mountains and many other places without telling my parents about it. Because they might have stopped me. Some of the places were taboo, but as a young man I wanted to see the real Iran with my own eyes.

But not the Zurkhane. I enjoyed watching young and older men practising the Iranian national sport, called Varzesh-e Pahlavani or Varzesh-e Bastani. keeping pace with the heavy sound of a drum played by the morshed or guide, who is typically seated in an elevated position within the hall.

More about the Zurkhane in the two featured videos below. Enjoy! And I hope you can experience a different Iran from the one the major media has been telling or showing you.

The Trailer

The whole film