Morrie Y

I was born in Kashmar, a small city in northeastern Iran with a population of around 100,000 today. But when I was 11, in 1996, I moved to Mashhad—a city that shaped my soul.

Mashhad today holds over 3 million people. But in 1971, when this powerful documentary was made, it was home to just over half a million. It was a different era—14 years before I was born, and 8 years before the 1979 revolution. A time when the city was quietly progressive, deeply spiritual, and straddling the space between tradition and change.

This documentary, titled “Mashhad”, was directed by Hossein Torabi, and it won First Prize at the Sepas Film Festival in 1972. It was produced by Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Arts and features narration by none other than Ahmad Shamlou, one of Iran’s most iconic literary voices. The visuals are by Fereydoun Rei-Pour, with a deeply evocative score by Sheida Gharchadaghi.

I grew up in this city. It’s where I secretly learned music—piano, guitar, singing—at a time when music wasn’t allowed in my home. I listened in silence. Practiced in secret. Hid my passion from the world, especially my late father. It took me nearly twenty years to say it aloud:
I am a musician.

Mashhad might not seem like the kind of place where rock music could survive, but it does—quietly, underground, pulsing like a secret heartbeat. The city’s paradox—modern yet religious, sacred yet evolving—shaped how I hear music, how I feel it.

My sound is a marriage of two worlds: the Persian Phrygian tones of my past and the Western harmonies I discovered in secret. My music, like this city, lives in the tension between tradition and rebellion.

This documentary will show you a piece of where I come from.
Gray Dream, the song you’re hearing, is born from this very mix—
It may sound strange, unfamiliar, or new,

But it’s honest.

It’s mine.

Credits
Director: Hossein Torabi
Narration: Ahmad Shamlou
Cinematography: Fereydoun Rei-Pour
Music: Sheida Gharchadaghi
Editor: Siavash Shakeri
Produced by: Ministry of Culture and Arts, Iran (1971)