ifilm exclusive report on Iranian movie ‘Bold Children’

Watch iFilm’s exclusive report on ‘Bold Children’, featuring director Hojatollah Seifi.

Below is a transcription of the report's highlights.

ifilm: Hojatollah Seifi is the director of ‘Bold Children’. He has been working and directing for many movies in different genres, but he has been working on movies for children exclusively for a while now.

Seifi: I decided to resume working on movies for children because I felt that the movies that are being made aren’t exclusively made for children. I’ve seen very few movies that are made exclusively for children – a movie that is made for children by children.

Some movies show adults in disguise as a clown that imitates a child to make children laugh. We’re not supposed to make movies in order to only make them laugh. Just look at the movies that are made abroad, for instance ‘Harry Potter’; and the likes, people watch them attentively and follow up the story of the children who are in a serious story.

So I thought that we should make movies for children just like this. We should make use of the potentials that exist in our country, Iran.

In the meanwhile, children are in a situation that the children who are seeing the movie can feel. When you want to say something to a child, it’s better for a child to say it, not an adult.

ifilm: Sometimes travelling to a new place may spark ideas for a screenplay.

Seifi: I’ve travelled to Kish Island a few times because of the Documentary Film Festival there. I’ve been there a lot. I thought we could make use of this island; we can both show this island and make a film exclusively for children.

The adults can watch it, too, but if we make a movie for children with children in it, it would be great. I came to this decision to make a film by using the sea, sea animals and the local potential of the island.

I made this movie two years later and I waited four years for it to be screened. The actors who starred in it are 17-years-old now.

ifilm: Hojatollah Seifi has also made ‘Bold Children 2’ and it’s in its last phases. He has also written ‘Bold Children 3’, but all of this is happening as he screens the first installment of the franchise.

Seifi: The story has the potential to have sequels. The first movie recounts the life story of the scriptwriter’s father who is dealing with publishing his book.

The second one takes a more fictional atmosphere. I had to finish it as soon as possible because the children were growing up. Also, I thought if the film is screened that same year, the children could click with its sequel the next year.

That one was more fictional and the third sequel revolves around the future life of these children.

AI/AI