Dreams and Visions in Evin Prison

In 1983 Iran, the Iran Hostage Crisis is a recent memory, and the Iran/Iraq war rages on. Suspicions are high and relations between Iran and the U.S. are dire. It is during this complicated, tense time in Iran that Dreams and Visions in Evin Prison is set. It is within this historical period that an American named Robert Turner (Bobby), while hiking with two companions along the border between Turkey and Iran, is captured by Iranian border guards. Bobby is suspected of being a CIA agent and is imprisoned in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran. Bobby professes his innocence, which increases already tense international relations. The American finds himself imprisoned in a vermin-infested cell with three cellmates; Ali, a disabled veteran of the Iran/Iraq war and recovering heroin addict; Hassan, a graduate student imprisoned for speaking out about social justice and oppression in an authoritarian society; and Kouroush, a former university professor and a prisoner of conscience, who shares with his younger inmates the mysteries of poetry, mysticism, religions, and philosophy. The four inmates experience deprivation, brutality and fear, often caused by a particularly cruel guard named Hussain. Bobby finds relief and even liberation through a series of dreams, visions, and mystical apparitions that allow him to 'escape' the cell and experience settings in the past, present, and future. Under the guidance of his cellmate Kouroush, he discovers the human need for mysticism, spirituality, and transcendence in life, particularly in harsh situations in which they find themselves, but he has doubts if it is enough to survive.