from filmmaker Aryana Farshad’s amazing film of spiritual rituals and visits to sacred locations in her native Iran– “Mystic Iran” (2002) 52 minutes.

from 2004 interview with filmmaker:

I wonder how you ever got the dervishes to consent to being filmed? There must have been some very memorable experiences that you had while making this film. Can you tell us about some of them? Tell us about that lady dervish whom I consider the star of your film. You know the one who was baking bread. She was awesome.

A: Yes, you mean Aisha. We gave her the code name Aisha. The most memorable experience I had was with Aisha.

In 2000, I had gone to Kurdistan and Sanandaj many times, location scouting for the film. The first trip, I interviewed only male dervishes. They were very kind. We smoked cigarettes together, which made our Kurdish guide very nervous. They promised to think it over about being filmed, but no answer.

One day, our Kurdish guide asked me if I wanted to meet women dervishes in Sanandaj. I ended up joining in their rituals. I am not a spectator but rather a participant in life. After my participation with them, the Khalife agreed to the filming at a later date. Some time later the Khalife invited me and my crew to join her group of women dervishes on a pilgrimage, which we did. We started out at 3 AM following behind them in a mini bus from Sanadaj to the village of Najar. We did not arrive there until 9 pm… it was a very long and mountainous drive.

When we got there, we saw a huge Sufi center. I went to the second floor, which was the women’s center. It was a dorm style room, covered with kelims on the floor. The women dervishes started the sema. I decided to take a picture, forgetting that they were taking their scarves off. Most unfortunately my flash went off and all the women dervishes started shouting: “film, film” and covered over their heads with scarves. Khalife told me to sit quiet. I went to the corner and kept quiet. Everyone quietly went off to sleep. I realized that I had disrupted the ceremony.

One of woman dervishes, Aisha, was still in trance and she was “speaking in tongues.” I was alone with them as everyone else was asleep. I was worried about Aisha. She kept crying, lamenting and growling.

Presently as her friend came around, I asked her why Aisha was in that state. I found out that her Sema was interrupted and she was stuck in trance and needed to finish the cycle of sema. I went down stairs and asked Sheik Najar’s daughter in law to join the circle and play the Daf. Aisha went through the trance and dancing. Gradually one by one the women dervishes sleeping next door awoke and joined the circle of Sama. We finished around 4:30 in the morning. I got close to Aisha and her friend after this episode. The scene of fire eating happened the next day, at 6am, while she was baking bread for the retreat.