to report cinema trust Famous Turkish director Nouri Bigele Jilan in the masterclass In response to the question of Khairnagar Cinematemad about the importance of Iran and Iranian artists and the difficulties of filmmaking in Iran, the specialist of the “Cinema Glory” program said:
I like Iranian cinema very much
Iranian cinema is noble and great, I am friends with many Iranian artists and I know them, some of them live in Türkiye.
He said: About the difficulties of filmmaking in Iran and Türkiye, I have to say, unfortunately, making films in Iran, Türkiye
And basically everywhere in the world it is hard work, but the important thing is how the film is made.
Are you making a good film or an ordinary film, anyway, it is possible to make a film, but sometimes we magnify the difficulties of filmmaking for ourselves and become dependent on these difficulties, as a result, our work does not progress.
He added: I can say from my personal experience that I made three of my films only with
I made it with my own budget and I didn’t get money from anywhere, I made a film for two, myself and the cameraman. But I made my film.
But to think that making a good movie is a difficult task and we have to try
According to ISNA, on the last day of October, a group of Iranian cinematographers such as Navid Mohammadzadeh, Mani Haghighi, Sahar Dolatshahi, Mina Sadati, Saifullah Samadian, Ferishte Hosseini, Mohammad Hossein Farahbakhsh, Bahare Katouzi, Leila Blokat, Parviz Shahbazi, Marjan Shirmohammadi, Farishte Sadrarafai, In the master class of the Shkowe Cinema Collection, students who are interested in cinema came to listen to the talks of Nouri Bilge Cillan, a Turkish filmmaker who won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jilan, who has talked many times about his interest in Abbas Kiarostami and the influence of this filmmaker’s cinema on his own works, in this meeting, he spoke about the beginning of his career in cinema, saying that in his youth and before that he lived in a small town and Cinema has been a way to fantasize. “We learned how to live and grow up from the cinema and every movie we saw had a great impact on our lives. But in spite of this influence, the idea of making a film came to me after many years, it was almost after the military period and spending a lot of loneliness and hardship that I decided to make a film. For this reason, I entered the cinema very late because I thought that my spirit was not compatible with cinema. I made my first short film at the age of 36 and I spent most of my time alone. At one point, I was also doing photography and even when I made a film, I felt that my work was a continuation of photography, and this experience gave me the courage to make films.”
In another part, he considered moral issues as one of the motivating issues for his filmmaking and about the different experiences of his films, especially the use of professional actors and non-actors, he said: I admit that I was afraid to work with non-actors in some of my first films because I was just making films and wanted to If the result is bad, don’t say anything, but later I gained more self-confidence and changed my approach and attitude. However, when I have written a complex script, I had to use professional actors, of course I also use non-actors because they act naturally and their presence has its own beauty. An experienced actor sometimes cannot get that natural feeling. Therefore, I use two types of acting in my work.
Jilan in response to what is his philosophy in filmmaking? He stated: I cannot say that I am a follower of a certain philosophical thought, but I am closer to existentialists.
He talks about the role of the critic in the cinema and whether he reads the reviews about his films. He said: I don’t read all the reviews because it is impossible for me to read them all. When we make a movie, we are blinded in the editing stage, and usually I read the reviews only in the first days of the movie screening, but then I don’t go to them anymore because they become repetitive, and I don’t have much patience to read long reviews. Of course, I believe that cinema is from critics. It has been raised and gained special importance and this issue spoils the cinematographers. While when a novel is written or an artist draws a painting, only one or two reviews are written about them, but for the first film of a director, sometimes even a page of a newspaper is spent. This means that there is no fair space in the field of art criticism.
In another part of this master class, Jilan said about the influence of Kiarostami’s cinema on him: Kiarostami is my favorite director and I learned a lot from him. Years ago, I saw the film “Where is the friend’s house” at the Istanbul festival, and I didn’t think that there was a special film from Iran. Let’s see, so while watching, I started with a small expectation, and as the movie went on, I was surprised. This movie was not like the movies that I and even others have seen. When you watch such movies, a window opens to you that gives you a whole new idea. After that, I always followed Kiarostami’s works. Of course, we have a common culture, and I like Kiarostami’s cinema from that point of view, which may be that this part is not very understood in Europe. Kiarostami has created a new breath in cinema and has also changed the method of filmmaking and proposed new ways of filmmaking.
Regarding the use of storyboards in his films, he first asked with surprise if anyone in Iran uses storyboards and after hearing that some people work with this method, he said: I have never worked with storyboards and I do not suggest them because the space is limited. and you should not cover the work with the default.
Of course, it can be said about Hollywood films that it is necessary because they have a big production, but for us who make artistic and independent films, it is not necessary and it is better to allow creativity to emerge. Some first-time directors may use both to compensate for their inexperience and to tell their crew how they want to proceed.
In another part of this meeting, Nouri Bilge Jilan said about his cinema and their sales: My cinema is 100% private and no one can suggest me to change anything in the movie. In terms of sales, the fact is that after the world got to know me, more attention was paid to my works, but the label of Cannes Festival is very influential in this direction.
At the end of this master class, a short film by Abbas Kiarostami directed by Saifullah Samadian was played, and then Mastane Mohajer – the director of the master class – expressed special gratitude to Jilan, who was the main reason for this gathering, considering Abbas Kiarostami’s place to be empty.
Samadian further said: It is a pity that you have seen Nouri and his films, but you have not seen his photos. 12 years ago, I was supposed to show his photos in the Museum of Contemporary Art, but it was not possible due to various reasons, including the change of government. I wish this happens sooner than the photos that are more panoramic of the solitude and solitude of Jilan and behind the scenes of his movies; to display
Then Ebrahim Haghighi, who was a close friend of Kiarostami and made a documentary about this late filmmaker, before broadcasting a few minutes of it, said: If we are going to measure cinema from an artistic point of view, you will definitely be a fan of Kiarostami and Nouri (Yilge Jilan) cinema.
The final part of the session was a souvenir photo of Jilan, Salim Evji, Parviz Shahbazi, Parsa Pirozfar and Mastane Mohajer.