Tehran (NAVID AZAD) – Director Navid Nikkhah Azad talked in an interview with ILNA on June 13, 2021 about the current state of Iranian cinema.
Director Navid Nikkhah Azad talked in interview with ILNA, published on June 13 2021, about the current state of Iranian cinema.
Navid Nikkhah Azad, a film director of short films, said about the current situation of cinema: “Iran’s cinema is broken in spirit and it has spent the past eight years and even before that depressed and weary, this depression has become such a loop that I think cinema hasn’t seen a better day for so long and even so it doesn’t know a feeling beyond what it is now.”
According to ILNA’s report, cinema is in broken spirit; this can be seen in what is shown in the theaters and the box office. This recession isn’t just due to Corona Pandemic, the major reasons are the dissatisfaction of the viewers and economic crisis people are coping with. Short films and documentary is a different story, these films have witnessed an increase in views and income and could shine even brighter internationally and win awards. To know how short filmmakers are doing, we have talked to one of the filmmakers whose movie has entered many festivals in the past months and have won some awards as well. We have had an interview Navid Nikkhah Azad about the situation of cinema and filmmakers’ expectation from the future government.
Q: How do you evaluate the cinema’s spirit over the last eight years? Do you see any improvement in the cinema, whether in the field of fiction, documentary or short?
A: Let’s move past cinema as a whole and limit its scope to the geography of Iran so that it can answer this question properly within this framework. Iranian cinema is broken in spirit and it has spent the past eight years and even before that depressed and weary, this depression has fallen so much on a recurring cycle that I think cinema hasn’t seen a better day for so long and even so it doesn’t know a feeling beyond what it is now, this is rooted in the past; A past that has lived longer and beyond those eight years. I think Iranian cinema has regressed in some aspects and improved in some others. In order to say for certain that whether cinema in either short or feature films has improved or regressed, in my idea calls for a wholistic analysis which can’t be discussed in this interview. Let’s draw a straight line on a sheet of paper. The starting point is the first day of those eight years and let’s say where the cinema was supposed to reach in these eight years and what we’d expected to happen. Let’s draw a vertical line so we know where we’re standing. If we assume that Farhadi’s Oscar “The Salesman” was the golden point of cinema’s life in the past eight years, this joyous event is considered to be the childhood period of the cinema’s life of the past eight years, and in the middle age and old age of the period in question, perhaps one cannot find another coincidence of the brilliance of Iranian cinema as influential as the one we saw at the beginning of this period. In the field of short films, especially fiction and documentaries, filmmakers have been able to take effective steps on a global scale and the impressive and remarkable presence at prestigious international festivals over the past three years verifies this very fact. Iranian cinema, in my view, has moved forward, whether in short films or feature films. This, however, does not mean that cinema has been in good spirit. This means that cinema is in a critical condition and has only struggled in the past few years to reduce the severity of it.
Q: For you as an active filmmaker in the field of short films, are governments different? If someone outside this field becomes in charge again, can we hope for cinema to improve?
A: For me the difference between one government and another is in the mindset and way of seeing things; however, the government cannot implement ideas and take a different view than that of the regime’s. To see the government’s vision and thought in line with our own leads to joy and creates hope, even though this hope can turn into something opposite of itself. I always think about change and efforts. I have always considered the change of a government towards improvement and development, and the government is supposed to be a blessing, wealth and prosperity. I don’t consider an individual to be the sole cause of cinema’s flourishment and success. If we think of Iranian cinema as a sinking ship, even a superhero can’t do anything to help it. I’m talking about strong management and the strength of a manager. It’s the mindset of an efficient manager who is supposed to be a savior. A manager can only be a savior when he or she implements a constructive policy. in most cases the cinema’s policies in this country contradicts the mindset of the people in charge of it. and for this reason, nothing has moved forward. All I’m saying is to first define a constructive policy, set the goal to create prosperity and improvement, and then that efficient person, whether from the heart of the cinema or outside it, with strong planning and management, leads cinema to prosperity.
Q: What do you expect from the authorities when Corona pandemic comes to an end? How can the ones in charge of cinema can put this crisis behind them?
A: In Chinese, the word crisis is a compound word: danger + opportunity. We are struggling with the risk of coronavirus every day, but it is important to see an opportunity in this danger to turn it in favor of positive and effective events. Perhaps we should ask the statesmen if they have any plans to get out of this crisis? Do you have a protocol? Do you have a way? And then let’s see if the government is capable enough to meet the expectations of the people of the cinema, which are not that small. Perhaps the sweetest memory that is left and we remember goes back to the days before the pandemic and perhaps everyday we wish to go back to that era, but at that time the cinema was still in crisis, and we had been in crisis before that. The sense of security in the pre-Corona crisis comes from a stability. So, our ambition is to return to a stable situation, a multifaceted stability that does not have a hint of crisis. Let’s say there will be no more coronavirus from tomorrow and no risk there is to our lives. Then what? Will everything be fine!? And everything will repletes with success and progress? I think in Iran and many parts of the world, eradication of Corona isn’t yet feasible. If we take a glimpse, we can see that countless internet series and short and feature films have been produced or are being made for online screenings, and a large percentage of the audience are content to be able to see movies from the comfort of their own homes alongside their loved ones with only a small budget, much less than the cost they have to put aside to go to the cinema and all that comes with it. With the advent of coronavirus pandemic, countless film festivals were created, festivals that owe their lives to coronavirus, and a significant number of these festivals deal with coronavirus and quarantine on a thematic basis. Even thinking about this big change and leaving this crisis behind will again profoundly affect lives. So even leaving Corona itself will be a new crisis. I think the coronavirus crisis was initially a passerby, then a guest of our lives, and now it’s a landlord. Perhaps my greatest expectation is not to let this virus and its crisis stay landlords and get rent from us. We should identify the pattern and structure of the crisis in cinema at the time of the pandemic and before it, and break that pattern and make an incident from the heart of this crisis that is positive and constructive and heads towards prosperity and construction. In my opinion, the present crisis has infinite facets that cannot be listed or named one by one. I think this crisis has been left on the ground like a decaying body. We need to work together lift it up and bury it.
Q: Iranian short films and documentaries received the most recognition in foreign festivals, do you hope that the next government will have a better and more accurate outlook on the cinema of short films and documentaries?
A: I begin my answer with a criticism to your question, I think it’s in itself a false assumption that we think the current government’s view on short films and documentaries is the right one. First off, let’s define what the government’s right view on short films and documentaries is, and then think to ourselves about the potential growth and fertility of this view, and what is exactly the right view or outlook and what does it entail. Governments and their men, have always tried to make colorful and empty promises to people, promises that are only said and are like fancy plates and cutleries on a dinner table. It’s us who make ourselves the promises and are holding our breaths. If we think from the beginning that this is an empty table, with only the smell of the food and there is no actual food, we won’t fool ourselves that we will be fed at this table. In previous years, short films and documentaries have been alone like an orphan or in other words have carried their own weight. It has long been said that success has thousands of fathers and defeat is an orphan. The success of short film and documentary cinema cannot be attributed to a father who has left his child and family. Looking at short films and documentary cinema is like looking at the righteous child of a family. That is, we believe that these righteous children should be good all the time and never be struggling and never choose the wrong path; nothing except this should be focused on, only the children who have taken right path! I want to say that short films and documentary cinema have been left alone, because whether something is done or not, we think it’s going to be fine. One important reason for such a view is that the people in charge of cinema and its affairs receive no news of short films and documentary cinema, and they must say that they are no news is good news! Perhaps they should rekindle their relationship with short films and documentary cinema. Sometimes, just a simple appeasement will warm our hearts, so we can free ourselves from the pain hidden in us over the years.
Q: What do you expect from the next government? Do you think when the next government comes to power the restrictions will be harsher, or can we hope that the situation will get better?
A: I expect the next government to agree with the principles it represents and not to back down on the principles it defines while thinking about adjustment, improvement and construction, and cross out any thought and vision that endangers and threatens the life of cinema. We are the people and culture that need hope and heroes, that is, the ability to call out hope, where there is not a single ray of it. Like lighting up a match to illuminate a dark world, that is, to show that there is a better world. Not the better world we want to exist, but the better world we had no idea could exist.
