ifilm exclusive report on 'Birthday Party'

Watch iFilm’s exclusive report on ‘Birthday Party’, directed by Abbas Lajevardi and produced by Mehdi Fiyouzi.

Below is a transcription of the report's highlights.

ifilm: Abbas Lajevardi, the director of ‘Birthday Party’, has made a few documentaries in Syria and this made him want to make a movie as well, knowing well about the problems, the situations and the lives of the Syrians.

Lajevardi: I used to make documentaries in Syria. I have always believed that we have two types of audiences. Some like to watch documentaries, documents and real events.

On the other hand, some like to watch narratives and dramas.

I’ve made a lot of documentaries and I felt that I have nothing more to say in Syria. It was time for me to narrate a story and convey my message with this story, a message that has not been received by so many people.

ifilm: Usually, professional filmmakers make their own décor to shoot the scenes, but this time this filmmaker took the risk and went to real locations to shoot the scenes.

Fiyouzi: First of all, it was not possible considering the budget we had. Also, the real locations created a good feeling for the film crew.

Because most of the cast members were Syrians, we preferred to choose Syria, the war-stricken locations which had been almost evacuated.

We thought that we might not get what we wanted with décor and special effects. So, we had to work in real locations.

Lajevardi: If we wanted to use décor, we would have needed a budget more than what we spent to show real images.

If we wanted to use special effects along with it or separately, even though computerized special effects in Iran are good, our people see Hollywood movies, Indian and French and Iranian movies.

If they wanted to compare our special effects with those movies, if there was the slightest flaw, it would have resulted in a bad effect on them. So, I thought it won’t impress the audience.

Our cast members and the film crew had a better chance to show their emotions when they saw what had happened there, the catastrophe!

AI/AG