Italy arranges shoot in Iran after 5 decades

Italian director Costanza Quatriglio has her new drama’s filming lined up in Iran with the movie marking the first sizeable Italian production to shoot in the country after five decades.

Italian producers Ascent Film and Rai already wrapped up the shoot for 'Just Like My Son' in Italy, a media report said, adding an Iranian production partner of the film also joined the project for the first time since the 1960s.

“This is the first Italian fiction film shot and co-produced with Iran,” Ascent producer Andrea Paris told film industry website Screen Daily.

The Italian, Persian and English-language film is about an Afghan teenage boy who escapes civil wars and the Taliban militants.

Italian producers are Paris and Matteo Rovere’s Ascent together with Rai Cinema with the film having production partners from Belgium and Croatia.

“Shooting in Iran was crucial for us as it’s the only safe country with a strong community of Hazara refugees,” Paris said about filming the co-prod in Iran.

A great number of Afghan refugees live in Iran with the country offering them protection and education.

AG/AG