Reza Attaran’s face says it all: Iranian censorship’s a bitch. The Abdolreza Kahani-directed “Absolute rest” (“Estera’ate Motlagh” in the Farsi original ) got its head bashed in multiple times, so to speak, by Iran’s Ministry of Islamic Guidance. The ministry needed the filmmaker to cut the film significantly in order to make it more palatable for an Islamic movie-going audience.
Film was supposed to premiere at the last Fajr Festival. A request for sixteen different edits was initially made by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance, but the laundry list of amendments was eventually pared down some. Questions about the nature of the relationship between Alidoosti and Attaran’s characters caused some of the friction, apparently. The Fajr screening was ultimately scraped.
This is not the first time Kahani ran into opposition from the ministry people, all his previous films have been modified in some form or another before being allowed to be screened in Iranian theaters.
Kahani, who is based both in France and Iran, has gained some traction internationally, with a Jury Prize win at Karlovy Vary for his film “Twenty” and French financing and exhibition of his film “We have time” last year.
With any luck, the original version of “Absolute Rest” will be seen at a film festival outside Iran and nab a couple of distrib deals.
Is a Cannes run in “Un Certain Regard” totally out of the realm of possibility? I’m rooting for it.
“Absolute Rest” will be released in Iranian theaters during Persian New Year–Iran’s equivalent of the month of July in terms of B.O. potential– at the end of this month – Ali Naderzad
Watch a recently-released trailer of the film (no sub-titles were available)
iranianfilmdaily.wordpress.com 