to report cinema trust Tina Jalali wrote in Etemad newspaper: Behrouz Shoaibi’s latest production called “Aghosh Baz”, which was released in cinemas these days, has a different form and tone than the other works of this director, the film combines several generations of Iranian cinema and theater actors. It tries to tell a story to the audience and give a good feeling.
Of course, Shoaibi is one of the young and thoughtful directors of Iranian cinema, but his recent work has caused different reactions, but he believes that filmmakers should not limit themselves and should add different experiences to Iranian cinema. In his opinion, Iranian cinema has different forms and films. different needs.
This director says: “One of the problems facing our cinema directors today is pushing them towards industrial filmmaking. Industrial filmmaking avoids any experience and any new structure and follows stereotypes; Stereotypes whose results are definitely more reliable, let’s not forget that we are the children of the same cinema that has been alive in our country for more than a hundred years and has won almost all the important awards in the world. Today, we must not necessarily repeat the old experiences, but we must try to create new and dynamic structures. to preserve in Iranian cinema.”
Our conversation with Behrouz Shoaibi about the structure and content of the film “Aghosh Baz” is in front of you:
Mr. Shoaibi called your subject or you called the subject to make the movie “Aghosh Baz”? Can you tell us a little about how this film was made?
The “Open Embrace” project was in my mind a few years ago and I thought that this project would be made as a serious and social film with a completely different structure.
So how did it come with so many changes?
Over time, it seemed to me that for this story, which has a social background and is actually a melodrama, we should choose a language to tell the story and make the audience feel good about it. As a result, we preferred the tone of the film to be sweet, that’s why the melodrama turned into a comedy drama.
When comedy and drama are combined, the events no longer have that bitterness, but the subject has its own sensitivity, that’s why what happened in “Aghosh Baaz” was actually the sediment that combined the story of the concert and various couples who They are involved and it became a new dialect and tone for me.
So the subject called you?
Since the plot is for me and my proposal to my writer friends, yes, the subject called me, something suddenly involved me, until some time ago, I thought that the main focus of the film might be only the concert and the concert hall, but that’s all for me. It got serious, I tried to get out of focus on the concert, but the thing that is important to me, when the writing of the script and the production of the film was postponed, it seemed to me that now is the time to say it, which was the concern of many of us. It became very important for me to be seen by the important half of the society, that is, women.
When we review the films of your career, you mostly told stories to the audience, even in an important film like “Cyanur”… of course, formalism is also seen in “Without Appointment”… but in this film, form is seen more than story, was it intentional?
Anyway, the priority for our field of work, that is directing and filmmaking, is the risk of experimenting in the form and structure of the film, considering the topic and content, we try to reach a new way in the stage of building the script, but this is our responsibility when making and directing. The film does not destroy.
Yes, I thought about the form in this film, as I thought about the form in all my films, but by the way, “Aghosh Baz” was made for the general audience, considering the tone it had and the fun and attractive atmosphere that can be seen in the picture, such as the color and I had to observe the type of framing and tempo in such a way that it is eye-catching.
Was it hard or easy to convince the producer for the formal film? Although Ali Sartipi has proven in his works that he is interested in different cinema .
…. First of all, without any exaggeration, I would say that I had one of the best collaborations in making a film with Mr. Sertipi as a producer. The main part is because of his experience and comprehensiveness in cinema, because Mr. Sertipi knows both production, broadcast, and media. It was a very good experience in this respect, but if I want to explain the path of this collaboration, I must say that when we reached an agreement with our good friend Mr. Mohammad Mehdi Asgari as an investor to work on this story, we offered Mr. Sertipi to be the producer. to take over this film and when they accepted, it was a good professional event for me while I was working.
Were you not worried about communication and audience judgment? Paying attention to the form and formalism by itself causes the audience to fall.
If you mean the difference and new form in the structure during the production stage, I don’t worry too much about this happening, I hope to make other films and definitely not limit myself and have different experiences. The main reason is that our cinema needs different forms and different films. I think one of the problems facing our cinema directors today is pushing them towards industrial filmmaking.
Industrial filmmaking avoids any experience and any new structure and follows stereotypes; Stereotypes whose results are definitely more reliable, let’s not forget that we are the children of cinema that has been alive in our country for more than a hundred years and has won almost all the important awards in the world. Let’s save Iran, this part of cinema is very attractive to me, here I have to admit that sometimes I put the brakes on events such as financial or economic or a position that is obtained by demagoguery and I definitely put them away from me for the benefit of cinema and what is more important for cinema. is
why
Because I believe that we should learn to respect the audience and try to improve the level of social culture, of course, I do not claim that the output of our film is the best output, but I definitely believe that I tried and I try to do what I can and only with false enthusiasm. And I will not make films that are only eye-catching. I think that if these words of mine do not become claims, it is my luck and happiness to try different experiences and these experiences will benefit Iranian cinema in the direction of making good films.
Taking into account that most of your films were social, has the strictness in the issues that have limited social cinema in the last two or three years caused a change in the direction of your work?
No, what was important for me was in the current situation and the situation of the society – based on various issues – I thought maybe a sweet and new tone would be better to communicate with the audience, otherwise “Aghosh Baz” is still a film with social issues. And its focus is on family issues and couple relationships, of course I must say that social film is not a genre, social film is the concerns that are expressed in the story based on the character or the axis of the story. This time, I think the best genre to express my words and communicate with the audience is comedy drama.
The use of happy and comic layers in the drama “Aghosh Baaz” is different. Can you explain a little about it?
Anyway, when we use the comedy-drama genre, the sweet and humorous layers that appear in the story are among the characteristics of this type of cinema. In the screenplay with our writer friends Mr. Sajjad Najafi and Mr. Kurosh Niay Aziz, we tried to follow the principles of the genre we entered and the story has jokes in some parts.
The comments and opinions of some critics that I read raised criticisms, most of the opinions were about the fact that they wanted Shoaibi before “Open Embrace”, what is your opinion about these comments?
Anyone can have an opinion about a movie and opinions are very respectful to me, although we have become a bit strange with the word critic these days; Almost we read very little expert analysis, all the writings are personal opinions and personal narratives.
I feel sorry for the critics who write about movies. I think that everyone is allowed to experiment and I don’t like to be trapped in the format that I experienced myself and maybe it was successful in some places or it was less successful.
“Aghosh Baz” has been my concern for a while, and according to all the requirements and calculations I had, it should have been made into a film. I am very happy with this experience and I think that this film will definitely remain in my history, I don’t think that Behrouz Shoaibi, as a filmmaker, will sacrifice the form and structure of the film or the genre of the film he makes, his experience or history.
In my opinion, if you had chosen a one-line narration and storytelling for the film, there would have been a difference in the image of the film.?
It would have definitely been different, it might even have caused differences in the tone of our storytelling, anyway, it is a choice, when we sit around the table and work on the screenplay, that is when we understand how many choices there are in the story and the story-telling process, and one can choose the path and method. go new But our decision was to tell three parallel stories.
The love and attention to this word in today’s world of vanity is worthy of consideration in the movie “Aghosh Baz”. Missing these days of industrial life, don’t you agree?
Yes, I completely agree, basically, love is a part of life that no matter how much it is with us and we don’t pay attention to it, it goes away from us, love needs to be repeated, it needs to be taken care of, it needs to be reviewed and it cannot be ignored.
In this industrial world we live in, if we don’t remind ourselves of love, bigger issues and problems may come to us, not with love, but with many concepts that are sometimes neglected in society, I feel it is our duty to remember. Not fueling it.
Perhaps in today’s society, if we repeat to each other human dignity, the relationship between humans, the status of women and children, a halal diet, we will not see this volume of bitter events. To be honest, if the love for family, country and love for each other We should not see so much competition in eliminating each other and competition in economic matters. Do you see why people regret when embezzlement is brought up in the economic case?
Certainly, in the first layer, they don’t think about why the embezzler took their money, they think that fairness in the society is lost and one person thinks that he can get rich at the expense of others’ poverty, it makes everyone sad and sad. .
Some critics have points about the special attention that the producers show you, and sometimes they raise criticisms about the fact that you can make films and series every year, what do you think?
Well, first of all, I would like to say that God forbid that I could always make films and that producers would be kind and make it possible for me to make films, but this is not the case. If I tried to make a film, I made it two years apart, every film I started, I was involved from the stage of the text to the version we delivered for the festival or screening, but the fact is that no one gave me a guarantee and there is no guarantee that the film to make
The first thing that exists is God’s grace and the many efforts I have to make to make the next film, that’s all.
Considering that you were a member of the film selection committee for submission to the Oscars, you explained about the choice of the film you were considering, the choice of the film in Aghush Drakht was accompanied by many reactions.
First of all, this committee consisted of 9 people and I had one vote, but we tried to watch and analyze the films properly and finally we had two or three excuses. Like the non-release of some films, I think the non-release is a more important issue. Dear producers, if they calculate and their timing is correct, these films should not be considered for release at the moment when the Oscar film nomination committee is formed. If two or three films had been released earlier, we would have been open to giving points, my preference is not to speak as one of the members because we always believe that if something happens in the selection or judging panel, it is actually a specialized work, I believe. Each member of the committee is a member of a working group with whatever opinion they have, therefore, if there is a discussion about this year’s selection, all members must be present, but the main point is that cinematographer and producer friends for some festivals such as Fajr or Berlin and Cannes, whose dates are known They plan to prepare for the nomination of the film to the Oscars in advance, not that they are just looking for the release when the selection committee starts its work.