The heads of of various regional film festivals met yesterday during a roundtable entitled “International Seminar of Top Cinema Officials” at the ongoing International section of the 33rd Fajr Festival in order to discuss the possibility of establishing co-productions between Iran and their respective countries.
According to a press release made available by the festival following the panel meeting, film industry people from Russia, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Tajikistan, Georgia, Syria, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Senegal, Iraq, Singapore, and Poland participated in the panel with a view to facilitate co-production relationships and promote transnational cooperation. More specifically, they agreed to support the screening and distribution of the participating countries’ productions in their own countries, establish a database listing crews, facilities, and film locations from all participating countries, ratify Iran’s initiative for establishing a permanent secretariat that would oversee the multilateral effort, launch a proposal that would establish a fund, hold training courses and workshops and exchange students and university professors.
With its funding help this type of co-production scheme could help lift many regional filmmakers from total obscurity and gratify them with a chance at some exposure on the festival circuit – Ali Naderzad
Why did he do it? Why did Alireza Rezadad step down from his current post as director of the Fajr Festival. You’re heading the country’s primo film festival, you’re in apparent good health, and you walk away from that post? Say what now?
There’s trouble in paradise as far as I’m concerned. Did somebody somewhere in Iran’s political establishment get pissed off about Rezadad’s performance and a result Rezadad got the boot?
In more specific terms, Rezadad will not be running the show next year. Mohammed Heydari has been named as his successor via an official decree from Iran’s Film Organization, headed by Hojatollah Ayyoubi, that was released yesterday. The statement thanked Rezadad for his efforts in organizing “the country’s greatest cultural event.” Heydari will oversee next year’s Fajr, which’ll be its thirty-fourth edition. So what happened?
Mohammad Heydari
Trying to gauge sentiment among Iran’s clerics is like playing wack-a-mole with your hands tied behind your back. It ain’t gonna happen. Unpredictability has always ruled the day here, and so until further news becomes available speculating will be just that. Of note is the fact that Heydari will be the twelfth person to take charge of Fajr (turnover’s a bitch in Iran).
I’ve tracked news media inside Iran and was amazed by how perfectly every news media (I’ve read a dozen) has replicated the official press release, without nary an original comment, a question or an analysis. The truth will out. I’m just not sure when – Ali Naderzad
There will be more of an Iranian presence this year at Cannes market with Iran having its own pavilion, notably, in Village International (a sort of UN-style agora where officials from the world’s nations peddle their audiovisual wares and hand you glossy press books)–a first, as that country never had this much of an official presence here–and some new generation filmmakers getting some much-needed exposure downstairs in the Palais, where the Marché du Film.
Some films available for acquisition to take note of:
“Yahya didn’t keep quiet”: Kaveh Ebrahimpour’s first feature stars Fatemeh Motamed Arya, Mahan Nassiri and Neda Jebraili. Young Yahya is being looked after by his aunt while his dad is away. She’s a strange bird with a closet full of secrets and a controversial reputation to boot. As Yahya adapts to her world, he seeks to understand the meaning of life a general, a quest that will cost him dearly (Dreamlab)
“Gap,” directed by Kiarash Asadizadeh
“Gap” (“Shekaf”): This is Kiarash Asadizadeh’s second feature. Cast: Babak Hamidian and Hanieh Tavassoli.
Sarah and Peyman must decide urgently on whether to become parents or not. Sarah suffers from a rare disease which threatens to make her infertile. Her gynecologist advises her to have a child before it is too late. And yet, becoming a parent is clearly no easy matter, especially as their dilemna gets further complicated by the breakup of a couple of close friends whose son is torn and cannot decide between living with his mother or his father (Dreamlab)
“For a rainy day” (directed by Faezeh Azizkhani; first feature, 90 minutes). Cast: Shirin Agharezakashi, Vali Azizkhani, and Hedieh Tehrani.
A student filmmaker finds out her mother has been having a recurring dream in which she is about to die. The mother decides to both accomplish her outstanding religious duties and fulfill her children’s wishes. She knows that her daughter’s only ambition is to make a feature film and hires a movie star. As she waits for death to come a-knockin’, the mother is faced with an unexpected turn of events (Dreamlab)
Taraneh Alidoosti in “Atomic Heart”
“Atomic heart” (directed by Ali Ahmadzadeh). As they drive home from a party, Arineh and Nobahar crash their car. A strange man offers to pay for the repairs and refuses to be reimbursed. Instead, he asks the two girls to follow him into some strange places. Very quickly, while traveling through a nighttime Tehran full of strangeness Arineh and Nobahar discover a parallel world, the existence of which they never imagined (stars Taraneh Alidoosti, Pegah Ahangarani) (Dreamlab)
“A minor leap down”
“A minor leap down” (directed by Hamed Rajabi; first feature, 88 minutes), stars Negar Javaherian and Rambod Javan. Thirty-year old Nahal is four months-pregnant when she’s told her unborn child has died and she has two days to be aborted. This revelation plunges her into a revolt against family and friends (Dreamlab) (- Ali Naderzad)
With two filmmakers vying for position in the official selection and a brand-spanking new IRAN outpost in the Marché du Film’s Pantiero Village (this year marks the first time that Iran will have its own pavilion in the International Village) Iranian cinema is about to gain new traction with international audiences, although not necessarily American ones. As the Marché du Film’s Jérôme Paillard confirmed in a recent email exchange, getting your film into a Europe-based film festival like Cannes will position you for sales in European territories. When the right Iranian-made movie comes along and its producers are willing to wait until Toronto…–well, if you build it, they will come, as they say.
The two films in question are Ida Panahandeh’s “Nahid,” running in the non-competition official selection program and Behzad Azadi’s short film “Koshtargah” (“slaughterhouse” in the original Farsi title), a twenty-four minute-long short film which Azadi made while a student at the Art University of Tehran and which will run as part of the Cinéfondation series, the festival-within-festival for student-made movies.
They said festival programmers were turning away from Iranian-made films and focusing on other countries instead. And yet, hot on the “TAXI” win at the last Berlinale filmmaker Ida Panahandeh’s film “Nahid” has been selected in this year’s Cannes Festival official selection, as was announced by Thierry Frémaux and newly-installed president Pierre Lescure during a press conference held inside a large movie theater at the top of the Champs Elysées late this morning.
Panahandeh is no newcomer, she’s been making films (shorts and a documentary) for nearly a decade in Iran and is also a screenwriter. “Nahid” (104 minutes) is her fourth feature-length film, although her three previous ones were made-for-TV movies. Film stars Sareh Bayat and Pejman Bazeghi – Ali Naderzad
Follow my coverage from the Cannes Festival during 13-24 May.
Old habits die hard so I typed my old Chelsea zip (10011) to find out where “About Elly” (“Darbareye Elly”) was going to play. Film Forum, downtown New York City, is in fact the only theater in all of Gotham to show the Asghar Farhadi-directed ensemble-cast thriller starring Golshifteh Farahani,Taraneh Alidoosti, Peyman Moaadi and Mani Haghighi which comes out tomorrow. It’s just as well, for one theater is better than none.
“About Elly” is finally getting a stateside limited release, well after the fact. Let’s remember that the year of release for this film is 2009. That’s six long years during which theater-going Americans were deprived of this slow-burning drama surrounding the mysterious disappearance of a woman vacationing at the beach with a group of friends. In “Elly” Farhadi, a filmmaker generally based in Iran who’s been able to make his films without government funding, thankfully stays away from the affecting socially-conscious narratives often encountered in Iranian cinema to focus solely on the politics of the heart. For this subtle and powerful directing performance Farhadi won the Silver Bear at Berlinale that year, “Elly” won Best Picture at Tribeca and became Iran’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
So why the long wait? The original distribution company that was supposed to handle U.S. went bankrupt and “Elly” got stuck in limbo. The wait is finally over – Ali Naderzad
Twelve days. That’s how long it’ll be before the world knows which films have been chosen by Team Thierry Frémaux to run for one or more prizes during the 68th Cannes Festival.
Thierry Frémaux is the Cannes Festival’s general delegate. He’s the person who decides, along with a staff of about six, which films out of the average 1,800 submitted each year makes it in the official selection.
The Cannes Festival will take place during May 13-24. I will be covering it for both Iranian Film Daily and Screen Comment (this marks my ninth year at the Cannes Festival).
There are two programs in the official selection, a competition series and a non-competition series. And although being in the former will land one filmmaker the Palme D’Or, being in the latter (the Un Certain Regard program–U.C.R.– was created by now-former festival president Gilles Jacob and launched in 1978) does get you a prize that, although not as big in renown, comes with a $ 30,000 prize from France’s Gan Foundation.
In the past, three Iranians have received awards in the UCR series: Jafar Panahi for Crimson Gold (2003), No one knows about the Persian cats, directed by Bahman Ghobadi (2009), and Mohammad Rasoulof‘s “Goodbye,” which won best directing in 2011.
The Cannes Festival’s Thierry Frémaux
Unless I can extirpate the information about which Iranians will be participating this year at Cannes from Thierry Frémaux (he’s already told me he’ll keep mum on the subject, unsurprisingly) you’ll just have to wait until April 18th, the day of the Cannes Festival press conference. It’s that eleven o’clock ritual that takes place every year and during which Frémaux, flanked by the festival’s new president Pierre Lescure, announces the films before an audience of journalists.
“An arresting documentary from Shirin Mozzafari, “Someone Else’s Project,” is set in Iran’s public spaces and tackles questions of authority, authorship and freedom of speech. Wishing she could see footage from daily life in her hometown of Tehran, where filming without permission is illegal, Mozzafari finds a young woman to shoot street scenes with hidden cameras” [SOURCE: WBUR Boston]
Filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf is currently presiding over the jury of the 39th edition of Hong Kong international Film Festival, which is ongoing and will run until the 6th of April.
Makhmalbaf is joined on the jury by the film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, Sandra Ng (Actress) and Chris Lee (a film producer).
Makhmalbaf’s latest film “The President” was screened at the festival late last week.
Shias and Sunnis are at loggerheads again because of each one’s self-proclaimed legitimacy to show their prophet in the best light.
In short, Iran, where “Muhammad” is about to be rolled out next month, has come under fire from some Sunni countries. Egypt recently decried the film’s depiction of Muhammad (in fact, only the back of his head is shown). According to Sunnis portrayals of the prophet, even those that are restrained to a voice or a silhouette, amount to an undoing of his spiritual prestige and are prohibited as such.
This ain’t some schoolyard beef. Previous depictions of the prophet, such as those made by the media, have drawn angry responses across the Muslim world. When a fourteen minute-video mocking Muhammad came out, violent protests in Sunni-majority countries like Egypt and Libya were sparked. More recently, Muslim jihadists targeted the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January over its caricatures of the prophet, killing most of the editorial staff.
In a recent press conference “Muhammad” director Majid Majidi made a good point when he said, “how should we introduce our prophet? Many relay their messages to the world through cinema and pictures.”
As it were, Shia Islam, which is practiced in Iran, has a more relaxed attitude on the subject of prophet portrayal, images of the prophet and his son-in-law Ali being ubiquitous in this country. According to the Associated Press Khomeini kept a picture similar to Muhammad in his room for years.
Some Sunni countries have chosen to go beyond the wars of words and indignation altogether. Qatar will go in direct competition with Iranian cinema and produce its own film about Muhammad. They’re throwing major coin at it ($1B according to some news media). “Lord of the Rings” producer Barry Osborne has been attached to the project – Ali Naderzad
The heads of of various regional film festivals met yesterday during a roundtable entitled “International Seminar of Top Cinema Officials” at the ongoing International section of the 33rd Fajr Festival in order to discuss the possibility of establishing co-productions between Iran and their respective countries.
iranianfilmdaily.wordpress.com 