The movie “Muftbar” directed by Adel Tabrizi and produced by Hossein Farahbakhsh and Abdullah Alikhani is currently being screened in the cinemas of the country.
This film is the second cinematic experience of Adel Tabrizi. Before Muftbar, he made the movie Gijgah, which was released last year. “Moftbar” is a comedy film, which, like the previous work of this director, Hamed Behdad plays the main role and actors such as Sahar Dolatshahi, Reza Babak, Behrang Alavi, Shaghaeeq Farahani, Forough Qajabagli, Siavash Chiraghipour, Qadratullah Izadi, Manouchehr Azari and Giti Moeini have played a role in it.
According to Ilana, we had a conversation with Adel Tabrizi on the pretext of “Muftbar” screening, which you will see in detail below:
***After making the movie “Gijgah” you went to a completely comedy work. How did you come to the script of “Muftbar”?
A person whose interest and field of study is cinema and cinema becomes his profession, his life conditions and personal issues become decisive in his art. A filmmaker may decide to make a film every few years in a difficult situation, and a filmmaker may decide to continue making films continuously. My excitement towards cinema and filmmaking is such that I don’t think much about what film to make after my first film or to determine a path for myself.
The making of “Moftbar” was like this: Mr. Farahbakhsh suggested a story to me, and considering the story and the fact that he is one of the most influential producers of Iranian cinema, and even in my previous film I paid homage to this producer’s films, I decided to Mr. Farahbakhsh, I would like to cooperate in the production of “Moftbar”.
*** However, perhaps the most obvious common feature of “Muftbar” and “Gijgah” is the filmmaker’s love and passion for cinema, which shows your footprints in “Muftbar” and we continue to see the devotion to some films.
Mr. Farahbakhsh suggested a story to me, after reading it, I decided to inject the story into the film with a tone that has my own identity, and this was the most important element that was very important to me.
Every producer has a structure and worldview. I had to produce the film in the professional structure of Mr. Farahbakhsh’s production office, and we were present in the meetings with Mr. Farahbakhsh and other people who wrote the initial script, in order to create a sense of the cinema that I myself follow in the film. For example, at the beginning of the movie, when the car arrives at the checkpoint, we have a dialogue that says; Is the sea stormy or sunny? And I took the same dialogue from the movie “Hostage” or in the scene where Kamran has just entered Tehran and is on the street, we hear the voice of Hamed Behdad “Naranja Posh” who is working in the background of the character of a sweeper.
I tried to keep the atmosphere of the movie and add the movies I like to the movie and I even included these things in the romantic sequences of Nilofar and Kamran and in addition to this movie and “Gijgah” in the “Janabaali” series. I also watched a movie.
Mohammad Hossein Farahbakhsh is one of the producers whose cinema has introduced features for serious cinema audiences, perhaps more than the directors he works with. To what extent can the role of this producer influence the final product in the making of “Moftbar”?
Some people are of the opinion that Mohammad Hossein Farahbakhsh has a genre of cinema, and a series of critics often use terms such as “a film in the style of Farahbakhsh’s cinema” to criticize a film.
If you follow the film career of this producer after the revolution, the “Poya Film” office had a great impact on Iranian cinema, and it was not clear what would have happened to Iranian cinema if “Poya Film” did not exist, and especially the relationship between cinema and the people. Mohammad Hossein Farah Bakhsh’s career is one of the most diverse film careers that a producer can have, he has some very bold works in his career, and I believe “Swan Song” is one of these works. In Mr. Farahbakhsh’s portfolio, you can see action, children, comedy, social, etc. films, and in my opinion, this is a different and rare portfolio.
****Many films in recent years have been criticized with the label “Persian film”, but you seem not to be afraid of this label and easily pay homage to this cinema in your film.
When Mohammad Ali Fardin and many prominent actors were acting in films before the revolution, maybe there was an attitude that Iranian cinema has a structure, and Mr. Hoshang Kavousi used the term “Persian film” for these films, but some time ago, after several years, a documentary titled “Super Man of Iranian Cinema” was screened in the art and experience group, and this film was a work by Nasser Malekmatiei. It is interesting that his films were usually labeled Persian films and he was severely criticized.
I am trying to follow my favorite cinema, when I made my first short film at the Tehran Short Film Festival, I was attacked as to how I have reached a comedy film in the structure of a short work. These attacks do not exist for “Maftbar” either, I knew that many people may consider this movie as a Persian film, but I did not run away from it and even used a dialogue in the last sequence that shows that I do not want to run away from this title at all. Even when I know that the tag of “stew cinema” may be used against me, I cut down on eating broth. In my opinion, Persian films were unfairly criticized, because when we went further, we realized what influence Mohammad Ali Fardin had on Iranian cinema, and even in his films, which constantly talk about seeking justice, chivalry, masculinity, love for family, respect for mother, respect for love. And the ethics of positive social effects can be witnessed. I knew what film I was going to make and what I was going to do in the professional structure of Poyafilm office.
How do you evaluate the audience’s relationship with “Moftbar”?
I am not satisfied with the comments in estimating the feedback of the audience, I visited the Azadi cinema last night and I was faced with really good feedback. There was a family who emphasized that they came out of the movie theater in a good mood after watching this movie. Some even compared this movie with “Gijgah” which simply follows the concepts of respect, family and love.
In making this work, I always paid attention to how to make a comedy film that would have a good effect on the audience. For example, the sequence of Daisy eating is a completely moral sequence that we see in pre-revolutionary cinema.
How did you choose Hamed Behdad and Sahar Dolatshahi to make a comedy film?
Hamed Behdad is an exciting actor and I am so compatible with him that I think we will work together for a long time and I even have a script where I told him that I left this movie for your 80th birthday. Mrs. Dolatshahi is also a very good actress, and she performed well in this film, and in other roles, we used old actors such as Reza Babak, Giti Moini, and Manouchehr Azari, who we may not have seen in such roles for a long time.
A few years ago, Robert De Niro did a movie where he and his grandson were fighting over a room. A movie that was really considered a third-rate work, if Mr. Ali Nasirian or Parviz Parastowii had acted in such a movie, it would have been subjected to strange attacks many times in our country. Hamed Behdad has played very good quality films in recent years and he has a well-kept record and I had a good experience with him in “Gijgah” and he very intelligently accepted the role in “Muftbar” to get out of the safe frame he is in. And it’s a great bonus that an actor can break himself so consciously and intelligently. Hamed Behdad is a very good boxer who hits well and has shown his footwork in Muftbar.
Are you satisfied with the screening conditions?
I have not involved myself much in the screening, but I feel that “Muftbar” has acted sensibly so far and moved forward, and when I go to the cinemas, I also notice the satisfaction of the people.
In Iranian cinema, unfortunately, filmmakers and actors are locked in one cinema, and if someone abandons that cinema and works outside the common structure, it will be seen as unconventional and will be attacked, but I think this unconventional