Exclusive interview: Sirous Moqaddam

In an exclusive interview with iFilm, prominent Iranian director Sirous Moqaddam talks about one of his most popular works, the television series ‘Capital’.

Below is a rough translation of selected parts from the interview conducted by iFilm in Persian:

iFilm: Mr. Moqaddam, how did you come up with the idea to produce the series ‘Capital’.

Moqaddam: About 5 or 6 years ago, the story of ‘Capital’ was a one-page draft which talked about a family who had purchased a house near the railway and faced some problems once they decided to move in. The story was written by Touraj Aslani who is a cinematographer and he wanted to make a feature film based on the story which did not happen for certain reasons. Mohsen Tanabandeh finally showed the draft to Ms. Qafouri and I and we bought it and made it into a television series and Mohsen Tanabandeh expanded the story which became ‘Capital’ and the location instead of Tehran suburbs was shifted to another city.

iFilm: Why did you chose one of the county’s northern cities as the main location for ‘Capital’?

Moqaddam: First of all, we chose Mazandaran Province fir its beautiful sceneries and rich musical culture and our second reason was the fact that many Iranians are familiar with the culture of northern cities as they are popular vacation destinations for their mild weather, beaches and forests; therefore, they can relate to them easily.

iFilm: In the series, instead of filming inside apartments you chose outdoor locations; how successful did you think it would become?

Moqaddam: We had different reasons. I am originally from Khuzestan Province and I always saw that filmmakers are focused on Tehran and only portrayed the concerns of the residents of the capital. As someone from another city, I always liked to talk about the problems of the people of those cities which is what we acheieve in ‘Capital’. As a director, I was tired of inside locations and the people who were in touch with me had also shown their disdain for locations like apartments and coffee shops and wanted to see lives of their fellow Iranians in different places; so, I took the story out of Tehran and apartments.

iFilm: What was the main factor that made ‘Capital’ so popular?

Moqaddam: Since people can easily identify with the characters of the series and see the projection of their own lives in them, it was very well welcomed by the public.

iFilm: We heard some good news these days which is that the fifth season of ‘Capital’ is about to be produced. Are you not afraid that the drama is dragging on and will be repetitive?

Moqaddam: The crew of ‘Capital’ and me are doing all we can not to be repetitive and this does not mean that we want to continue with it forever. Rather, we are looking for interesting ideas for ‘Capital’ and if this was not the case, we would produce a new season last year which we did not due to lack of ideas. I must say that ‘capital’ will go on for as long as it has decent subject matter and people enjoy that subject matter.

iFilm: Tell us a little about ‘Capital 5’.

Moqaddam: We have decided to produce ‘Capital 5’ and what we are planning to do is to start in Athens or a city in another country and then come to Iran. The script of ‘Capital 5’ is currently being written and if we do not face any issues, we will start shooting in March 2017.

*Interview conducted by: Hanieh Khavari

**For more about Sirous Moqaddam click here.

HY/HY