to report Trust cinema Tina Jalali wrote in Etemad newspaper: These days, the continuation of the memorable movie “Sweet Sufferings” directed by Alireza Davdenjad, is being screened in cinemas across the country, with a different story about the concerns of the youth and the difference between generations… a movie that does not use star actors and in the structure and The narration does not use common clichés, but it has a thought-provoking theme and it seems that young people will have a good relationship with it, but what is important and sad about this movie is that the movie was released in a deserted way and it failed in introducing and attracting the audience to The cinema does not have proper advertisements, that is, people do not know about the screening of this film, and we can say that the release of this film is not visible in the commotion of comedies.
We had a conversation with Alireza Davdenjad, the writer and director of this film, about this issue, which is in front of you.
***I know that you are not in good physical and mental conditions, on the other hand, I want to start the conversation by talking about dear Reza Aziz, because I know that you have a lot to say about him, but I doubt and worry that you will bother me.
That’s right, this wound is still fresh and I don’t want to open it, I’ll just say that since he was five years old when he made a brilliant presence in front of my camera in the film Beshayah, our relationship has changed and it’s as if the director-actor relationship has given a different quality to our father-son relationship. His appearance at the age of seventeen in Masayib Shirin and his nomination for Simorgh, the leading actor, showed that he has become a person of cinema and cannot be separated from it; Later on, with the TV series behind the exams and his entry into the TV and acting in the Bad Boys movie and his participation in the production and executive works of Khat and Moj films, our relationship took a different form. He wants to guide the child to a correct decision, because on the one hand, by continuing to work and acting in various films and series, he had gained more exposure to the public atmosphere of our profession, and on the other hand, he was present in the context of my personal and family life and tried to create an atmosphere that I need him to create for work, especially with my family… Even this last work I did as an actor in the series “Daranthai Shab” was only possible with his mediation and persistence and the suitable conditions he provided for my stay in Tehran. I didn’t come to Tehran and play a movie… alas… there is a lot of talk, if there was life and healing, leave it for later…
***How many days has the movie Masaib Shirin 2 been released, what made you decide to make a sequel to this movie?
My nephew Mona, who lived in England, missed the work of cinema and acting very much and hit the key for this project.
***There is a point about the release of Masaib Shirin 2, besides the fact that the film does not have a well-known face, the film is quite weak in the advertising space, it is clear that the film suffers from this sector.
In the release of films that are not full of stars and do not use common stereotypes in the structure and narrative, introduction and promotion play a decisive role, while you can see that this film is not introduced and promoted on TV, nor in the urban environment, nor according to the common practice these days on satellite; It remains the virtual space, for which we thought of launching a noisy opening show and inviting popular stars and colleagues who are familiar with and interested in Reza. With the presence of Attaran, Parsapirozfar, Tanaz Tabatabai and Terlan Parvaneh, my assumption was that, as usual, there would be a ceremony and a welcome and interviews with these stars and recitation of their memories, and talk about Reza’s 30-40 years of presence in cinema. And it becomes television, and one of its characteristics is an actor who brought tears to the nation at the age of five, and at the age of seventeen, he brought the problems of youth to the cinema screen, and became a candidate for Simorgh Crystal, and with Asghar Farhadi’s exams, he started a new season in television series. and in this way, at least suitable food will be provided in the virtual space and the film will be effectively introduced and promoted, but it did not happen.
** But the opening was held.
Yes, the opening ceremony was held and the dear guests came, but unfortunately there was not even a welcome and the ceremony was held with crowds and fights and the noise of the theater and the absence of guest actors, etc. He was deprived and again, as always, this question was raised to me, and of course this time more sympathetically, do Irshad, television, municipality or other institutions really value artists whose lives are spent serving the country’s media art system? Don’t these disregards and neglects come from the same source that doesn’t frown upon handing over tens of millions of Persian-speaking audiences to regional and global media art systems, and welcomes isolation, staying at home, and emigration at the door of the beautiful and creative Iranian forces? does it How should one really understand and interpret this way of treating and ignoring the small and big artistic, media and social capitals of a nation?
**Mr. Davdenjad, you mentioned the neglect of small and large artistic capital, how should this importance be understood and interpreted?
In my opinion, the mentality that manages our cultural, artistic and cinematic affairs, regardless of slogans and speeches, is the same mentality of the era when there was no news of the Internet and satellite networks and the tools and equipment for the production, distribution and display of artistic and media works in The financial and political powers were monopolized and managed and controlled the visual and auditory space of the society with recommendations and directives and finally, take and close; I prefer to refer to this mentality as “Gutenbergian”; A mentality that is trapped in the core of the “written and silent” text and the world created by it, and in the effects and consequences of the breaking of political and financial monopolies on the ownership of means of production, distribution, and display, and the emergence and replacement of the “visual and audio” “digital” and global text. which is made and is made with it, does not have a serious and efficient reflection and treatment, and in the face of the massive influx of forces producing visual and audio content and the collapse of geographical borders and the access of young and old to the world of light and sound and their mutual relationship in terms of production and consumption, Not only does it not have a living, active and efficient nobility and presence, but unfortunately, it is passive and inevitably more imitative and often affected by the political, financial, and gang tastes and tendencies of groups and gangs.
*** What is your suggestion to get out of such problems?
Undoubtedly, without relying on the amazing capacities of modern and digital technologies and creating a deep and all-round transformation in the mentality and way of managing cultural, artistic and cinema affairs, and without paying attention to the mass of tens of millions of Persian-speaking audiences, and without rebuilding the research and educational system and linking it to the production market. and distribution and display and without mobilizing tens of thousands of skilled, expert and creative forces scattered throughout the country and without creating new visual and audio markets and people who will shorten the gap between production and consumption, and this situation will continue. will do, and people like me, millions of young people who are familiar with new technologies and full of novel and new artistic and media ideas will not be able to compete with the waves of imported digital products, and the dominance of regional and global media art systems on the visual and auditory space of the country is more than It will fuel our cinematic, artistic and cultural bankruptcy. If our media art system is supposed to find a transformation in the direction of national interests and interests, without a transformation in the relations of investment, production, supply and display of these works, such a transformation will not be achieved, and certainly any action in this direction will not take place without real and non-ceremonial trade union participation. It will not work.
***It has been a while since Iranian cinema has turned to advertising on satellite to achieve sales and box office. How do you see getting the audience used to comedy movies via satellite? What is your analysis about satellite advertising? Is getting used to and driving the cinema audience to satellite only suitable for more sales? It seems that every movie that satellite advertises is good, and other movies that are screened and do not have advertisements, no noise is heard from them, so nothing…
The point that censorship and insecurity of the market has no end other than passivity and imitation and consumption is an example right here; Why? Censorship weakens the relationship of art and media with the current life and the problems of the society, and the result is artificiality for television and re-production of satellite products for cinema. Artificiality leads to the reduction of believability and the loss of television audiences, and whether or not it drives the cinema to satellite channels to advertise its productions. The narrator of this hadith, Benald Ajab Madar, said: In Iran, we create a distance between Iranian television and cinema with the human warmth of current Iranian life, and we drive bored Iranians to sit at the feet of foreign satellite channels, then there is no other way to advertise and attract Iranian audiences to Iranian products than to resort to advertising on the same foreign satellites. We do not find! Will one day this inversion and futile operation of investigation, understanding, analysis and summary stop?
***Mr. Davdenjad, one of the most important problems of Iranian cinema in the last one or two years is being limited to two types of films, comedy and organic, and this has weakened social cinema, what do you think?
Considering the increasing development of movie theaters, Iranian cinema should think of solutions against censorship and market insecurity, and by resorting to any possible trick, it should avoid the mass production of movies. The setback in production means opening the field for them who are officially waiting for the import of foreign films. I am in no way against freeing the import of foreign films unless the free production of Iranian films is possible. It is a disaster to push Iranian cinema out of Iranian life with censorship, and to move some of its creators to serial production, and to drag a group to the production of advertising films, that is, films that make a profit in production and do not think about the audience, and so on. Let’s prepare the ground for the decline and decay of “cinematic knowledge” in this land. Without cinematic knowledge, which is the art of believability in audio-visual works, no country can achieve a comprehensive and effective media art system; Therefore, it comes on the heels of censorship and market insecurity; Bringing the audience to any kind of cinema is permissible and an inevitable effort to preserve cinema halls for Iranian films, although it is a desperate and desperate struggle for the survival of the chain of production, distribution and screening of films in Iran; It goes without saying that among the so-called organ films, sometimes there are rare brilliances like “Abu Gharib Strait”, which is a ripe fruit from the tree of cinematic knowledge. But anyway, our film productions are limited to commercial comedies and organic tragedies and there is no news of Iranian life in social dramas. Ultimately, it means that Iranian cinema is deprived of cultural management and is struggling in a vortex of political economy.