‘Under the Moonlight’ redefines religious sanctity: Exclusive

Iran director Reza Mirkarimi has exclusively talked to ifilm about his movie ‘Under the Moonlight’.  

Picked up as ifilm weekend treat, ‘Under the Moonlight’ is about a young boy named Seyyed Hassan who is sent by his strict father to a seminary so he could study to become a cleric and come back to their village to preach, just like his late grandfather did. During some course of events, he is familiarized with what the society needs.

Mirkarimi holds the view that his film is all about saying how faith and sacredness are not only limited to religious people; but laymen, who do not have anything to do with being a cleric, can be also some indication of sacredness.  

“There exists relativity in people’s faith. There is no absolute thing for anyone that can absolve him/ her of any misdeed,” noted Mirkarimi, adding that, “In the story, the cleric accidentally meets some religious people – I mean religious in the sense of connection to God; not in the sense of his fellow clerics. The people he meets have nothing to do with being a cleric.”

Later in his talks, Mirkarimi points out to the fact that ‘Under the Moonlight’ was not after redefining religious faith rather it was an attempt to present a new face of religious sanctity – something beyond simply preaching a sermon.

Mirkarimi believes that the current relation between clerics and people is a one-way kind of relation; and the cleric in his movie tries to surpass this boundary and get into the world of ordinary people, trying to understand their pains and sorrows– a journey that changes his life forever.

 MM/MM