According to Khabaronline news agency from Cinema Museum, Mohammadreza Aslani, a veteran filmmaker of Iranian cinema, said: I got to know Lamoris with the movie “Red Balloon”, which was a poetic and romantic work. World cinema is very limited in dealing with romantic topics and Lamouris is the revivalist of romanticism in documentary cinema and “Bad Saba” is also a romantic film about Iran.
He continued: Lamoris designed a helicopter to make this film without vibration, because until then the films made by helicopter had a lot of vibrations and it was not possible to create something aesthetic in them. Lamouris worked with various technicians until he finally managed to design an engine for a two-wheeled helicopter to be vibration-free.
The director of “Shatranj Bad” added: He directed various films with his new design and was the creator of the floating movement in cinema. Lamouris’ initial fame goes back to the movie “Red Balloon” and for this reason he was invited to Iran to make “Bad Saba”. Lamouris was not interested in using someone from the third world for the English speaking of this film, but in Iran Manouchehr Anwar was suggested to him. To narrate this work, Anwar used the French speech as the basis of his work and wrote the speech in English and French and implemented the idea of Lamouris in the text.
Aslani said: Anwar studied theater at the Royal University of London, and English was considered his mother tongue as a second language. He was in charge of the narration for the most popular promotional films of the Ministry of Culture and Arts and spoke only in English on these works. The movie “Jam Hasanlu” was the first Persian-language movie in which Anwar Giftar was in charge of the narration, and I tried very hard to convince him to express the role of Hallaj. It was after that that Anwar was forced to accept the Farsi speech of the movie “Bad Saba”.
He pointed out: Iranian documentary cinema has always been a poor cinema and Iranian filmmakers tried to produce their works with the limited technology that existed and relied on their ideas more than technology. For example, the film “Arbain” by Nasser Taqwai is not a technological film, but special editing and structural ideas are used in it, and a static insight has made it attractive. On the contrary, Lamoris belonged to the technological world, the difference between French technology and American technology is that French technology was combined with a certain kind of aesthetics, and the industrial aspect seems to be less in it.
Aslani stated that Lamouris succeeded in achieving some kind of aesthetic through technology, and added: This is an issue that we still haven’t achieved in Iran. Iranian documentary cinema was launched with the activities of Iranian intellectuals such as Fereydoun Rahnama, Anwar and Golestan, and works based on creative ideas were formed that still look spectacular. In those years, documentary filmmaking had not yet become a specific profession and was more related to passion. The important thing is that progressive art and ideas always face opposition at the beginning and many of the movements that have taken place have not been able to become global due to this kind of approach. In the fifties, Iran was a leader in the production of dramatic documentaries in the world, but this atmosphere led to many works remaining unknown. Iran could be known as the founder of dramatic documentary in the world, but unfortunately, this opportunity was lost and years later, in the nineties, the BBC took this title.
Aslani said: Unfortunately, during the filming of the movie “Bad Saba”, the helicopter carrying Lamouris and the film crew crashed over the Karaj dam due to an accident and they all lost their lives. This film shows how technology can create the aesthetic. In “Bad Saba” the industrial progress of Iran is not discussed and for this reason it was not well received. “Bad Saba” appeared again in the 1980s due to television and Jafari Jaloh’s tenure on Channel 1, and at the same time, this work was aired twice on TV.
Aslani added: The film “Bad Saba” is also important because of its painting skills, and its initial ideas were formed with the influence of Escher. The concept of view from above was introduced by Escher in the field of painting in the world, and it also flowed in the view of Lamouris.
Saeed Rashtian, a veteran filmmaker of documentary cinema, also said: During that period, the movement and experiences of Iranian cinema began, and Mr. Aslani was also involved in the “Iran Zemin” project, and poetic documentaries were produced in the form of new experiences. The ratio of technological capacities available in Iranian cinema should be measured with this work.
He continued: In terms of style and context, it took years for this experience to be accepted and used in the country’s cinema. Some believe that “Bad Saba” is a separate piece of Iranian documentary cinema experiences and has little connection with it, because this experience was understood and absorbed only after many years. Of course, in the decades after the revolution, efforts were made to bring domestic experiences closer to the world arena, but this gap still remained.
Mohammad Ali Hosseinnejad also said: I have seen this movie more than 10 times in the cinema hall and I always witness a new discovery from it. The narrator of this work is Bad Saba, who narrates his impressions of Iran, and that is why most of the scenes in the film are shot from above.
Arde Attarpour, a well-known documentary filmmaker, also said about the film: I have seen the film “Red Balloon” by Lamouris, and I think it is a very good and inspiring film, and Iranian short fiction cinema has benefited a lot from that work. After “Red Balloon”, Lamouris’s attention is drawn to the sky, and he uses this view many times in his works. Lamoris gave the audience a kind of surprise due to his intelligence, wit and special way of looking. At that time, seeing the earth from above was very surprising and difficult to imagine. Emotional, imaginative and poetic relationships have been injected into the film by Lamoris, and this was done by interfering in people’s lives, which was sometimes criticized. For me, “Bad Saba” is like a family album, through which we look at images from Iran again after fifty years, and this issue has given it an imaginary aspect. Many of the centers of Yazd and Isfahan seen in the film no longer exist today, and this has caused a kind of fascination. In “Bad Saba” Anwar has a prominent role and perhaps he can be considered one of the main components of this work.
The documentary film “Bad Saba” which was edited and restored by the Iranian National Cinema was screened at the Iranian Cinema Museum.