سرگرمى

بعد از مدتها، يك فيلم معمولى و نسبتا خوب ايرانى ديدم.  نه فيلمى كه بهترين و بزرگترين جايزه ها رو برده، نه خيلى عميق و فلسفى بود، و مهمتر  اينكه بى سر و ته نبود و بيننده را وادار به قضاوت و پيش بينى آخر فيلم نميكرد.  چقدر از اين روند رايج شده كه آخر فيلم كارگردان نميگه چى شد بدم مياد.  بيشتر از اينكه بيننده را به فكر وا بداره، به نظرم ضعف و ترس فيلمساز از مورد قضاوت قرار گرفتن يا نا راحت كردن بيننده رو ميرسونه. به هر حال، فيلم رو دوست داشتم چون معمولى بود و واقعى، و مهمتر از همه سرگرم كننده.  خيلى وقتها در سينماى ايران، بر عكس سينماى هاليوودى، كاربرد فيلم به عنوان يك وسيله تفريحى و سرگرم كننده فراموش ميشه و فقط روى بعد هنرى اش تاكيد ميشه، بماند كه اين فيلم شادى هم نبود و به نكات خوبى اشاره ميكرد.

اسم فيلم، "باغ فردوس، ساعت پنج بعد از ظهر" بود.  شايد از فيلم به خاطر درك حرص خوردن ها و عصبانى شدن هاى دختر، و شايد از نصايح و راه كار هاى روانشناس فيلم و نقش رضا كيانى خوشم اومد.  از ديدن آزيتا حاجيان بعد از سالها و اينكه هنوز همون طور زيباست خوش حال شدم.  انگار زمان ثابت مانده بود و من هنوز ايران بودم و در خانه خودمان اين فيلم را ميديدم، و شايد همه اين عوامل دست در دست هم داده بود، نميدانم. هر چه بود، زمان آرامش بخشى بود.  فقط اگر اين چاشنى عشق و عاشقى رو كارگردان اضافه نميكرد، اگر نشون ميداد كه دوستى خالص و پاك هم ميشه بين زن و مردى در ايران شكل بگيره و تداوم پيدا كنه، خيلى بهتر ميشد.  اما خوب لابد اون وقت ميشد از اون فيلم هاى بى سر و ته كه من دوست ندارم.  چه كار بايد بكنند اين كارگردان هاى بيچاره؟

Reality and dreams!

"The world of a filmmaker is marked by the interplay between reality and dreams. The filmmaker uses reality as his inspiration, paints it with the color of his imagination, and creates a film that is a projection of his hopes and dreams.

The reality is I have been kept from making films for the past five years and am now officially sentenced to be deprived of this right for another twenty years. But I know I will keep on turning my dreams into films in my imagination. I admit as a socially conscious filmmaker that I won’t be able to portray the daily problems and concerns of my people, but I won’t deny myself dreaming that after twenty years all the problems will be gone and I’ll be making films about the peace and prosperity in my country when I get a chance to do so again.

The reality is they have deprived me of thinking and writing for twenty years, but they can not keep me from dreaming that in twenty years inquisition and intimidation will be replaced by freedom and free thinking.

They have deprived me of seeing the world for twenty years. I hope that when I am free, I will be able to travel in a world without any geographic, ethnic, and ideological barriers, where people live together freely and peacefully regardless of their beliefs and convictions.

They have condemned me to twenty years of silence. Yet in my dreams, I scream for a time when we can tolerate each other, respect each other’s opinions, and live for each other.

Ultimately, the reality of my verdict is that I must spend six years in jail. I’ll live for the next six years hoping that my dreams will become reality. I wish my fellow filmmakers in every corner of the world would create such great films that by the time I leave the prison I will be inspired to continue to live in the world they have dreamed of in their films.

So from now on, and for the next twenty years, I’m forced to be silent. I’m forced not to be able to see, I’m forced not to be able to think, I’m forced not to be able to make films.

I submit to the reality of the captivity and the captors. I will look for the manifestation of my dreams in your films, hoping to find in them what I have been deprived of."

Open letter from Jafar Panahi - On the occasion of the Opening of the 61st Berlinale

Salve

Last night I saw the movie Salve or "مرهم" in Farsi by Alireza Davoodnejad. It was a well-made movie. For the most part, I was shocked by the characters in the movie. How everyone spoke by yelling at each other, how the youth in Tehran entertained themselves, how they would betray each other, and yet despite all that how easily they trusted each other again. It was as if I was seeing a foreign movie myself, not one from my own hometown. I felt detached and experienced culture shock. However, the moral story of the movie and the way it was conveyed was a masterpiece.

Davoodnejad showed the power of choice, the difference between being an observer and active participant, and the power of love so beautifully. The love that does not know any barriers of distance or generation gap. The love of an old religious grandmother who shadows her addicted granddaughter just to be there for her if she needed her. The love that makes her go to the most unlikely places for a woman of her age. She is everything to the granddaughter who was punished by her own father and abandoned by her so called lover and friends. The presence of the old religious seemingly cold and detached grandmother is all that girl needs to be saved: someone who loves her and cares for her.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The story of the "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly", based on a true story, is a moving one to say the least in so many different aspects, mainly in conveying the power of love, dedication, and patience. I have not read the book, but saw the movie a long time ago. I highly recommend it.

I do not want to give away the main story, rather just this very emotional scene, which I think easily brings tears to a woman's eyes. The main character is in the hospital and newly paralyzed. His lover, the mother of his kids, is at his bedside daily taking care of him. He does not care much for her though. He is waiting for the woman who he loves to visit him. She never does. His lover realizes this at his bed, feeds him while tears are covering her face.

How blind love makes us all, how blind.