cinema cinemaMuhaddith Vaazipour
“Cabin” by Yasser Khair is one of the most different documentaries I have seen in recent years. In the film, the issue of father’s loss is highlighted in a special way, “Cabin” while announcing a social crisis, praises the family and its importance. It can be said that the documentary “Cabin” is the narrative of a family whose frameworks have changed and its main pillar, the father, has been lost for years. Watching “Cabin” at the 18th “Cinemavegrit” festival can be an interesting experience.
It took several years to make the movie Cabin, where did the first idea come from? Manly or Aria or even mother, what was your first discovery?
The making of the documentary “Cabin” started in 2009 and the film was ready for screening this year. In 2009, I had gone to Gorgan to make a documentary about single-parent families, and by chance I met Ansieh Manli’s mother, who was the head of the family. In a conversation, we agreed that I would go to his house and meet the family members. As usual when making a documentary film, you don’t have a clear and clear idea at first, but I was attracted to the characters of this film because of my interest in making films about family and also because of my love for character-oriented films. The attractiveness of the characters of “Cabin” motivated me to start filming with them, and I made this decision regardless of the outcome. I didn’t know where the movie would go. The only thing I was sure of was the characters.
The point of the film is to discover an interesting topic and the second point is to get close to the characters in a long period of time. It is interesting that you have also reflected their thoughts and conditions. The character of mother, son, daughter and even their friend express their opinions and views in front of the camera.
In observational documentation, the word “discovery” is very important. The entire 4-year process of making this documentary was discovered. When I’m interested in the characters in front of my camera, I want to know more about them, and so the process of discovery begins, and I try to structure everything I come across during the filming and continue shooting in a way that reflects the characters’ lives. And their thoughts, opinions and feelings become tangible for the audience. Once, I would receive from the characters and then I would translate my discovery into the language of cinema for the audience. Of course, companionship and friendship with the characters made making this film very enjoyable for me. Because I have made a friendship with the characters of the film, which continues even after the film, and the value of this friendship is much more to me than making the film.
At first glance, “Cabin” is a family film and, of course, an important visual document about an era. How conscious was this document registration? The film reveals the situation of today’s generation and society in a clear and sometimes shocking way.
At the beginning of filming, I was only interested in the attractiveness of the characters and I didn’t know where it was going, but as I gradually got to know more of the characters and the passage of time and recording the events that happened in front of the camera, I realized that this film can provide new information about the lifestyle of the young generation of our country. Young people whose lifestyle is no different from the young people of other countries, this generation has grown up in the global village and the age of Internet, information and technology, and its life issues are more global than local. The same issues that young people in the East or West of the world have at this age are also faced by movie characters in our country. But about the society, I cannot say that the film represents the whole society and the young generation, but it is about a few characters that cannot be generalized to the whole society. It is true that we are in the era of globalization and the convergence of cultures, but if you take a closer look, each person of this generation, despite many similarities, has his own personal and unique world. Therefore, with all the similarities of this generation, their differences should also be understood.
“Cabin” is probably attractive for festivals, especially foreign festivals. How important is the foreign audience or attending the festival to you?
At first glance, I am thinking of showing the film in domestic festivals and showing it in the country, and after this agreement is reached, I want the film to be shown in other countries as well. To exchange information and culture with other countries. We gain new information from watching foreign documentaries and feel closer to them. Therefore, in the long run, this cultural dialogue leads to the rapprochement of most of the cultures of the nations.
The interesting point of the movie for me is Manley and Arya’s view on life. A kind of conscious idleness, avoiding any serious decision or approach. Especially in Aria. The film is a record of this lifestyle. Kind of like the hippies way back in the decade 60 AD, in America.
We must not forget that this film is about a limited period of these characters’ lives and it cannot be extended to their entire lives. Maybe after this movie they will find a different situation. Therefore, at this point in the life of these characters, their situation was like this. But what changes they will make in their lives tomorrow will be determined only with the passage of time.
In my opinion, it can be predicted from now that “Cabin” will be one of the most important films of the 18th “Cinemavegetir” festival. It is interesting that it got the chance to show and was not caught in the audit.
Thank you for your kindness. But I must say about the audit that it has lost its function, because the society has access to all kinds of information and awareness despite all these free social media, and the audit is useless in this new world. Common sense dictates not to do something that is not beneficial. Cultural decision-makers should trust the common sense of the society and know that the society is far ahead of the current cultural policies. In order for the government festivals to attract the audience, cultural policies should be adopted according to the society. Laws cannot be established, but can be discovered, and our society today, as seen from the lifestyle of the majority, moves ahead of the country’s official cultural policies, and if the laws are not written according to today’s society, we will lose more audiences.
Who do you think the audience of “Cabin” is, families, officials or young people? Without exaggeration, I think it is necessary for families to see this documentary.
I do not limit my audience. I consider anyone of any age and social and cultural class to be the audience of the film. “The Cabin” is about a human relationship that happens to everyone at some point in their life, I want anyone who wants to see a documentary to see this movie.
The documentary maker of this film is intelligently distant from the characters. Are you on anyone’s side? Even Manley?
My work was difficult in this regard, I loved and still love the main characters of the film, but at the same time, as a director, I had to balance and narrate the film fairly. Therefore, I tried to give all the main characters of the film enough time to express their feelings, thoughts and opinions.
And the last sentence?
In the end, I must say that I learned a lot from Manley and Aria, the characters of this movie, the most important thing is to be honest with myself like them and express my feelings and not keep a suppressed feeling inside me and share them with those around me. Conversation with ourselves and others is lost in our culture.