Afghan director talks at Fajr filmfest

Director of ‘Dying in Holy Water’ Navid Mahmoudi highlights great number of "successful immigrant" in Iran during a press conference at the 38th Fajr Film Festival in Tehran.

Tehran-based Afghan brothers Navid and Jamshid Mahmoudi talked about their movie which tells the story of some Afghan expatriates in Iran.

“We’ve been immigrants for many years, not only in Iran but also in the world,” Navid said.

“We know well about the problems and obstacles facing Afghan immigrants and that’s why we make films on this subject,” he added.

He also noted that there are lots of successful immigrants across Iran and the world, but making films about their problems is more dramatic.

“My brother and I are good examples of successful Afghan immigrants in Iran. We are even working on a plot for a TV series about successful immigrants,” Navid stated.

Jamshid, the film producer, also expressed his hope that taking part at the Fajr Film Festival would help increase the box office revenues of the film.

“We’d really like to screen our films in Afghanistan, but there are only six theaters and they are dedicated to Indian movies,” he said.

He also expressed his hope that they can convince some cultural centers in Afghanistan to screen their films.

‘Dying in Holy Water’ narrates the story of some young Afghans who go from Iran to Europe.

The synopsis reads “Rona: Hamed, don’t fear the sea. If you are afraid of anything, it’s more likely that it will happen to you.

Hamed: I don’t.”

The cast of the film includes Ali Shademan, Neda Jebraeeli, Matin Heidarnia, Sadaf Asgari, Sogol Khaliq, Alireza Ara, Amir-Reza Ranjbaran, Khayyam Vaqar, Peyman Moqaddami, Mahtab Jafari, Farid Eshaqi, Mahya Rezaee, Fatemeh Mirzaee, and Alireza Mehran.

The Fajr Film Festival coincides with the Ten-Day Fajr (Dawn) ceremonies across Iran, marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Since its establishment in 1982, the Fajr Film Festival has played a vital role in the development of Iranian cinema.

Supervised by Iran’s Ministry of Culture, the festival hosts veteran directors and new filmmakers from Iran every year.

The 38th Fajr Film Festival has kicked off on February 1, 2020, and will run until February 11 in Tehran.

This is while the international version of the festival will be held in April 2020.

Read more:

Iran’s ‘Dying in Holy Water’ reveals poster

Fajr contender ‘Dying in Holy Water’ outs behind-the-scenes

MG/AG