cinema trust Tina Jalali wrote in Etemad newspaper: One of the movies that is showing in cinemas these days is “Aziz” directed by Majid Tavakoli, the story of a mother who has Alzheimer’s and her illness, not only her personal life, but also her relationships with family members and It especially challenges his son. “Aziz” is actually a story-telling work with an inflammatory, important and thought-provoking subject, with Azadeh Samadi and Roozbeh Hesari acting freely, whose romance is narrated in the heartwarming atmosphere of Rasht, a film in praise of the position of mother, which has a coherent structure and an attractive and attractive script. .
But the important and sad thing about non-comedy movies like “Aziz” is that in the comedy-filled atmosphere of Iranian cinema these days, they don’t get a good chance to be seen, and this causes not only the movie not to be successful at the box office, but the audience from watching a good movie. no benefit
We had a conversation with Majid Tavakoli, the creator of this work, which is in front of you.
TheSome time ago, a letter of yours was published in cyberspace, which was very painful. How did it happen that the public release of the movie “Aziz” finally arrived? Can you explain a little about this?
The fact is that according to the distribution of my previous films, I negotiated with the filmmakers, I knew that there were difficult conditions for the general release of “Aziz”, but Mr. Sartipi and Noorani kindly accepted the release, because it is not a preference to release social films and they want, based on policies, release comedy films, because it is more profitable for them in the release. But Filmiran cooperated with me. Of course, I have to say that we had many meetings and discussed a lot about whether now is the right time or not. But naturally, with this trend that is going on in Iranian cinema, for the movie “Aziz”, which has a genre other than comedy, it would not be much different if it was released this month or next month.
The Of course, the problem of screening social films is not related to today and yesterday, social filmmakers have always complained about injustice in screening. But in the last one or two years, by giving too much space to comedy films, the space for showing social films became narrow.
What is your analysis of this situation?
Naturally, this issue is related to the audience’s taste, which was formed in the previous government, a lot of comedy films were released under the excuse of Corona and the closing of cinemas. Well, the people welcomed it and the cinema owners and broadcasters and the ruling movement of Iranian cinema changed the course.
Also, by not giving a production license to social films, by encouraging the production of comedy films, the unlimited screening of comedy films with high ratings, even against the regulations of the Trade Union Council.
Was this policy targeted??
Yes, it was completely targeted, so that it changed the taste of the audience today, which means that if a social movie is released next to a comedy movie, it will definitely not be seen because of the low ratings.
TheLet’s talk about the movie “Aziz”, without exaggeration, Aziz has a different and pleasant story, as if the production license for this film was not issued simply?
Yes, Kaseh Aziz is a different kind of romantic melodrama that was sensational because of the inflammation it caused. When I applied for a production license, all seven people voted against the “Aziz” script, and strange reasons were given for not making this film. Mr. Ahmadi, the producer of this film, and I believed that the film “Aziz” does not reflect these sensitivities and the mentality of the Production License Council is not correct. With our belief, we started the process of making the film and made the film without noise. When the film was finished, I presented a copy of the film to Mohammad Khazaei and Ilbigi, the directors of the cinema organization at the time, who saw the film and were satisfied with the output of the film and even wondered why the production license council did not give permission to this film. I don’t know what was behind the fact that they didn’t make the movie Parvaneh, but “Aziz” has an inflammatory and attractive script that some people don’t understand.
The
But still, tell your story correctly?
Although the story of the movie “Aziz” is a romantic melodrama, it is a bitter story, so I preferred to stay away from the urban environment and go to the pleasant weather of Gilan province and the cities of Rasht, Langrod, Anzali, and Lahijan to have beautiful and attractive shots in the movie. It should happen in an attractive context and the poison of the story should be taken.
In the end, I also expressed my devotion to the Gilki dialect, which I think was and is necessary in the field of drama to use this culture and ritual, because like all parts of Iran, cultures and rituals are being forgotten. Gilan should be recorded in the film. These were the reasons why I wanted to deliberately reflect the lovely atmosphere in the film.
The As you mentioned, paying attention to the culture of Rasht in the film “Aziz” is one of its most important elements and characteristics, you carefully try not to have postcard scenes in the film, you are talking about this. Did you deliberately not want the film to be narrated in another city?
You see, the first danger of making a film in an environment with good weather and bright colors like northern cities is that the filmmaker falls into the trap of beautiful images and the form prevails over the content, and it is very difficult to stay away from that atmosphere. Therefore, with Mohsen Hosseini, the director of photography, we decided to stay away from this space to some extent and use these moments despite their beauty and try not to let the beautiful form dominate the content.
The Was the choice of the old house in the movie intentional? Of course, it added to the beauty of the work, but I had a little question that it might be used for decoration.
When we are talking about a mother who is 82 years old and has gathered a family around her, we could not draw this atmosphere in the apartment, even though I was very interested in making the film in Rasht, but unfortunately, we had to shoot every corner of Rasht for We went to visit the location, they had built tall and different buildings with many floors and new architecture that did not allow even the beautiful image of the place to be the visual identity of the film. I gave up on Rasht and went to Lahijan, it was the same there, Lahijan also falls into the same trap of new architecture, and wherever I wanted to put my camera, the stone architecture and irrelevant space overshadowed a lot of the story, until I reached the beautiful city. Langrod, there is little new architecture happening there, we came to this almost abandoned but very attractive house, there was no one living there, we decided to go with Kivan Moghadam, the artistic director of the project to rebuild there and use it as a film location.
TheIndeed, it seems as if the story of the movie was real. It is true?
Yes, it was almost a one-line story taken from a true story that a cinematographer friend told me, and we decided to add events to it and turn it into a romantic melodrama.
TheOne of the most important parts of the film is the proper use of actors, Azadeh Samadi and Roozbeh Hesari were cast in the roles and made the story believable, how were they chosen?
When we were talking about the script with Ms. Dar al-Shafahi, I had first thought of using actors who belong to that region. After searching, I found out that Ms. Samadizadeh was born in Gilan and Mahd Lahijan. He mastered the Gilani dialect, I deliberately wanted the other actors in the film to be uniform and local, and to use talented actors from the field of theater and drama in Gilan province, who would like Bahman. I met Sadegh Hosni, Reza Abbasi and Shirin Mohseni, who played the role of Aziz’s family.
Of course, now that I see the output of the work, the choices were really correct. Azadeh Samadi and Roozbeh Hessari gave the best performances, although this uniformity was a very difficult task, because a number of actors were from Gilani and natives, but Azadeh and Roozbeh lived in Tehran. Thank God, the result was satisfactory.
In your opinion, you can expect more at the box office?
No, I can’t hope for the box office. Unfortunately, a lot of comedy movies that are released, it is not possible to see a social movie, we go to single screenings in most cinemas, and we don’t have advertising expenses for satellite channels and billboards.
The It is a very bitter point, the film “Aziz” was released in a situation where comedy films surrounded the cinema from both sides, both in the screening and in the advertisements, this injustice is not in the right of the cinema.?
No, they didn’t besiege them, they have the right to have a share in the screening, we discuss the overall policy of cinema, otherwise those filmmakers and comedy producers are also from the cinema family, and we all live in the cinema, and I might make a comedy too. I am not upset about the matter, comedy is an attractive genre in the world and in Iran. Our problem is the lack of justice in the screening, not the production and screening of the comedy film, otherwise the comedy film is one of the successful genres in cinema and should be made. In my opinion, in policy making, the cinema house and the cinema organization should come up with a new regulation that does not discriminate against social films or non-comedy films and basically do not destroy the diversity of the genre.
One of the sad events is the abandonment of the genre in cinema, which has almost disappeared in Iranian cinema now. We no longer have a genre called horror, romantic melodrama or films with a social theme, and practically no films are made with different genres because the return on investment does not happen.
If in the 70s, 80s and 90s, all kinds of movies were made and we had a variety of genres. All kinds of movies were made. This wrong alignment was formed in the previous period, the consequences of which we see today.
The What do you think is the way to save social cinema?
In my opinion, the way to salvation is empathy and like-mindedness between cinema people, which I hope will be realized by the cinema organization, the bylaws of the Screening Council will be changed and more justice will be realized. My suggestion is that non-comedy movies should have more screenings, but they should be screened for a long time and not end in a short screen time.