Grass (1925 film)

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Grass 1925.jpg
Directed by Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Produced by Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Written by Terry Ramsaye
Starring Merian C. Cooper
Ernest B. Schoedsack
Marguerite Harrison
Haidar Khan
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release dates
  • March 20, 1925 (1925-03-20)
Running time 71 min
Country United States
Language Silent film
English intertitles

Grass: A Nation's Battle for Life (1925) is a silent documentary film[1] which follows a branch of the Bakhtiari tribe of Persia (today Iran) as they and their herds make their seasonal journey to better pastures. It is considered one of the earliest ethnographic documentary films. It was written by Richard Carver and Terry Ramsaye.



The film highlights the extreme hardships faced by nomadic peoples, as well as the bravery and ingenuity of the Bakhtiari. At the same time, the film is also a reflection of the context out of which it emerged, that of Hollywood in the 1920s. The central concern of Grass is to present primordial human struggle with harsh environments, as in the contemporaneous ethnographic documentary Nanook of the North. According to Cooper,[2] however, the filmmakers were unaware of Nanook until their return to New York City from filming in Iran. As in Nanook, the filmmakers attempt to document "timeless" and "ancient" human struggles, here still observable in this part of the oriental world. The film has an engaging but deeply Orientalist tone in presenting the Bakhtiari as unchanging and archaic.


In 1997, Grass was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

In 2009, author Bahman Maghsoudlou published his book "Grass: Untold Stories" detailing background information and historical references related to the making of the movie.[3]


  1. ^ a b c Hall, Mordaunt (April 30, 1927). "Chang A Drama of the Wilderness (1927)". The New York Times. 
  2. ^ Behlmer, Rudy (1965), Grass DVD, Special Features: Merian C. Cooper- Rudy Behlmer Interview 
  3. ^ Maghsoudlou, Bahman (2009), Grass:Untold Stories 

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