cinema and television in the past month; Everything in the shadow of bitter events

Iranian cinema, like other areas, did not witness many events in the last month. While the 44th Fajr Film Festival was held in the shadow of the country’s bitter events and cinematographers debated about the way it would be held, the news of the judicial dismissal of Manouchehr Hadi from the “Trashe” project, as well as the decrease of 100 billion tomans in cinema sales in January, shows another picture of the chaotic situation of Iranian cinema these days. In this report, we discuss the most important events of the last one month in Iranian cinema.

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Fajr Festival; Between celebration and memorial

The 44th Fajr Film Festival was held this year under the heavy shadow of recent events in the country. This film event, which was held from 12th to 22nd of Bahman and the presence of 33 feature films in 33 theaters of Tehran, was organized by Manouchehr Shahesvari, and was more than anything associated with discussions beyond cinema.

Mohammad Reza Sharifinia spoke at the press conference of the movie “Sultan Cafe” directed by Mustafa Razak Karimi, which had a wide impact. This actor suggested that the Fajr festival was held in the form of a memorial due to the current situation. With her condolences for the recent days of the society and to all those who lost their loved ones, Sharifinia said: “I have a criticism of the festival due to the misunderstandings that have occurred these days, and while thanking Mr. Shahsawari, I wanted to say that I wish the format of the festival would change from the name to the way it started and held.”

He continued: “We don’t have celebrations in this country. We mostly live with “Wareh”, our celebration in the society is usually like this, and the celebration of the half of Sha’ban just a few days ago, people were walking with a sad song. Now something has happened and when someone dies, it is customary that after a few days the elders go and for example open the door of the shop (the mourner) so that he can start his business. I think that for this period as well, some of our artistic white beards should have gathered on the first day, for example, in the Unity Hall, lit a candle and opened a memorial. We don’t have comedy films in this festival, there are also films from the same 12-day war, and it wouldn’t be strange at all if it were done.” Sharifinia also said about the cinematographers who did not attend the festival: “The children who did not come here were not cowards, there is no question of fear at all. They could not digest this sadness, but this two-handedness and three-handedness in the society is very dangerous.”

Morteza Razzaq Karimi, the producer of the film, also stated in the same meeting: “These days, issues are being raised about the festival and attendance and non-attendance in it; While the word festival does not mean celebration. For the first time in the year 40, this word was chosen for the festival of growth, and it may not be the correct equivalent for the festival. We don’t have a celebration this year with this sadness and mourning families.”

Kazem Danshi, the director of the movie “Zande Shoor” also talked about the recent scandals and the pressures on cinematographers in the press conference of his film which was held on 15th of Bahman at Mellat Cinema Campus. Danshi said at the beginning of the meeting: “I dedicate the screening of my film at the festival to my dear friend and colleague Javad Ganji. May the souls of all lost loved ones rejoice. I hope we will pass these bitter days as soon as possible and live peacefully together.” He said about his film, which tells the story of five people sentenced to death: “I never thought that when we sent the film to the festival, we would reach a place in our country where we would talk about the numbers of people killed. However, I believe that some people intend to normalize Iran’s attack on our country with this incident.”

Danshi said that he knows that his words will have consequences and added: “Now some people are condemning us while they don’t have the courage to make a teaser about these issues. These people now cannot assign us why you are at the festival. I made all my films, both “bodiless” and “grassland” for people. This director also explained about the rumor of his role in the arrest of the actors at Ali Shadman’s birthday: “I have a financial dispute with Mr. Shadman, which was discussed in court before that. The story of my birthday came up at the same time and some mischievous people mentioned my name. At the same time, Setera Pesiani was also in the same party as the one who starred in our movie “Urdubehesht” and it is not reasonable for me to trouble my actor. Danesh, who has a history of making documentaries about executions, stated: “I was a documentary maker and I have several documentaries about executions. I have seen and filmed nearly 200 executions.” He also said about the financial situation of cinema people: “We have 10 to 15 superstars who earn well, but the average salary of a large cinema family is 50 to 60 million tomans. “We should not constantly pressure producers and filmmakers not to submit their films to festivals.”

One of the notable absences in this year’s Fajr festival was the film “Ghazai Nimroz” by Majid Majidi. This film, which, contrary to speculations, did not have a place in the list of films in the competition section of Fajr Film Festival, is going to be submitted to Cannes Film Festival. In February of last year, in complete silence, Majidi brought the film “Ghazai Nimroz” in front of the camera. Since the films applying for participation in Cannes must have their first screening in this festival, Majidi preferred to attend the Cannes festival over the Fajr festival and refused to present his film to this event. Behrouz Afkhami’s new film titled “Dr. Von Goyer” was also not submitted to the festival office due to the long post-production stages and not being ready, and was not evaluated at all.

The sharp drop in the sales of cinemas following the recent developments

The recent developments of the country had a great impact on the society and the cinema industry. According to the published reports, the sales of movies have dropped sharply following these events, and statistics show that cinemas have experienced a serious decrease in sales during the month of December. Since the beginning of January this year, 1,136,000 spectators went to the cinemas, and the movies on the screen sold 86.409 billion tomans worth of tickets. This is despite the fact that in January 1403, cinemas had sales of 184 billion and 614 million tomans. It means a decrease of almost 100 billion tomans in the sales of cinemas compared to last year.

Of course, it should be noted that the decrease in the sales of films in this period is somewhat normal; Because in the space of one month until the start of the Fajr Film Festival, the sales figures have always been facing stagnation and audience decline, and in the meantime, no new films were added to the screening cycle during the two weeks, but the bitter events of the country were also not unaffected.

Manouchehr Hadi was removed from directing the movie “Trashe”.

Manouchehr Hadi was removed from the film project “Trashe” by the order of the judicial authority and notified to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, and he is no longer the director of this film. Zainab Rezaei, a basic lawyer and legal advisor of this project, announced this news and explained that the order was issued due to legal urgency and necessity and the relevant changes have been officially registered in the relevant authorities. Pointing out that all the contractual salaries and wages of the former director were paid in full and in cash in 1402 at the same time as the contract was concluded, this lawyer said: “The case is being processed in both the legal and criminal departments. In the legal department, the issue of claiming damages and restitution of wages is being pursued due to the non-fulfillment of contractual obligations, and in the criminal department, due to legal considerations, it is currently not possible to provide further explanations.” Based on this, the production process of the movie “Trashe” continues with a new director, and legal proceedings are also being conducted. The movie Chip is produced in comedy genre and Pejman Jamshidi along with Pejman Bazghi are the main actors.

Veteran actor Saeed Pirdoost passed away

Among these bitter days, another news saddened the people of cinema. Saeed Pirdoost, a veteran actor of cinema and television, died in his home on the morning of December 16. This old actor passed away due to cancer and after long suffering from the disease. Pirdoost had been hospitalized several times recently. He was 85 years old on the day of his death. Among the most significant works of this actor, we can mention the movies “Treason”, “It’s the same time there”, “Kathil Ahli”, “Hakkam”, “Soldiers of Friday” and “Deer”. He was also present in the series “Paverchin”, “Naghtachin”, “Barre Nights”, “Man with a Thousand Faces” and “Staish”.