'The First Night of Peace' director talks series

In a media interview, 'The First Night of Peace' director talks about onscreen ifilm series series.

Director Ahmad Amini said of the formation of this series, “The spark for making ‘The First Night of Peace" was lit in 2004 and the script phase took a long time as a scriptwriter wrote about 13 episodes at first, but I didn't like the outcome. So, in late 2004 and early 2004, Saeed Shahsavari and Abbas Nemati took over the screenplay for ‘The First Night of Peace’ and after a while, Bahram Azimipour joined us as the cast and the project's main consultant. Filming began in late June 2005 and lasted until January 2006."

Abbas Nemati also mentioned the element of sin in this series was one of the reasons for taking on the script for ‘The First Night of Peace’, saying, "This process can be seen well in the character of Peyman (played by Amir Aghaei). On the other hand, each of the characters such as Rafee Maleki (played by Bahram Ebrahimi) had special complexities. Because they behaved in a way that, like some members of society, they did not take responsibility for what they have done. Rafee, for example, had a child but does not accept the fact."

Amini went on to say that he was only looking for an interesting and compelling idea to attract the audience:, saying "In this story, I was not at all looking to portray issues such as class conflict, but to think about what scenes and characters could make a hit series."

He added, “This series has a modern approach and does not include traditional views."

Referring to the characters of ‘The First Night of Peace’, a critic said, "In this series, the characters in different situations go beyond their lines of duty, which we see in prominent movies pertinent to the history of cinema such as Hitchcock's works."

"The characters in the series are not black and white, and in the editing of the scenes, a kind of cinematic look can be seen.  In addition to providing information to the viewer, the series pays attention to the relationships of the characters,” the critic adds.

He continued, “Saeed Shahsavari and Abbas Nemati as writers and Ahmad Amini in the director’s chair, liaised quite well in different parts. In addition, they created a relatively certain rhythm that was closer to everyday life. On the other hand, it was easier for the audience to follow what happened to the characters.”

"This series is one of the few series with no demarcation between its characters. This means that good people are not necessarily traditional and bad people are not modern,” the critic notes.

Referring to the issue of knowing the audience, the critic said, "Series are now moving in the direction of choosing their audience, whether they succeeds in attracting them or not."

In response to the question of which group from your point of view were the audience of this series, Nemati said, “I considered the educated middle class people in terms of culture and not in financial status as the audience of ‘The First Night of Peace’.

The director gave an example, “The scene where Peyman went to his mother's grave before going to Zarrin's house to kill him and gave money to a Quran recite there to read the Quran for his mother every week. I was inspired by a short (minimal) American story, but it was included in the script when it fit in the story.

“The story began with the creation of a love triangle. So we expected to attract enough young viewers in the first few episodes. But then we worked on different aspects of the story, so we could encourage families to see the series. We hoped to attract 15 years old and above audiences. In addition, we wanted to pull in more educated viewers."

In the end, Amini said that in this series, “we worked more on modernity than welfare, and said: "The rich father of Azar on the one hand and the traditional mother of Alireza (played by Mahtaj Nojoumi) on the other hand were some examples of this.

"In the series, we didn't want to talk about guilt or solve problems," the director concluded, Adding, “The messages conveyed to the viewers are also inferred from the structure of the story and the characterization.”

AG/AG