TEHRAN – Funeral workers’ service is an absolute necessity for modern life but they are not shown respect in Iran.

Filmmaker Mohammad Karimabadi has focused on the reason behind the contempt for funeral workers, including ghassals – ritual corpse washers, gravediggers and hearse drivers, in his latest documentary entitled “The Hidden”.

The short film was aired on Monday by the Mostanad Channel, an IRIB channel dedicated to screening documentary films.

“This film is about those people who do essential jobs, however, their services are not noticed,” Karimabadi said in a press release published by the channel.      

“The work they do is absolutely vital, but often they are not shown respect. Their work was harder during the COVID-19 pandemic as their lives were threatened by the illness,” he added.

Karimabadi said that he made great endeavors to convince a number of the workers to appear in his film and talk about the hardships of their work.

Some of the funeral workers said that they have even been beaten by mourners during funerals.

In this film, some of the funeral workers say that do not enjoy an ordinary life due to people’s affronting view of the job.

In addition, their children feel ashamed to reveal details about their parents’ jobs and many families disapprove of marriage with these workers.

The film also features interviews with ordinary people and sociologists commenting on the reasons behind public disrespect for funeral workers.

“The film was made to change people’s negative attitudes toward the jobs being done by funeral workers,” Karimabadi said, and added that as a result of education, people’s erroneous attitudes towards sanitation workers have changed over the past few years, but they still continue to undermine funeral workers’ positions.   

“The Hidden” was filmed in the northeastern Iranian town of Sabzevar during February and March.  

Photo: A poster for the short documentary “The Hidden” by Mohammad Karimabadi. 

MMS/YAW