ifilm exclusive report on Iranian film 'Ashoob'

Watch ifilm exclusive on Iranian film ‘Ashoob’ directed by Kazem Rastgoftar and starring Kourosh Tahami.

Below are the highlights of the report.

ifilm: Kazem Rastgoftar is among those directors that is not really interested in festivals; he’d rather have his movies hit the silver screen after he’s made them.

Rastgoftar: I believe that it’s the audience who gives meaning to the cinema industry.

Suppose a film is made but it’s not welcomed by the audiences and the audiences don’t like it. It can’t be considered a movie no matter how interesting, great and complicated it is.

I made use of all my experiences gained during these years in the movie ‘Ashoob’, considering its different features like being a musical and drama, its special graphics and its theme that revolves around social issues.

ifilm: This movie has an all-star cast and this is the slogan of the film.

Rastgoftar: Yes, the movie has a slogan and that is “The most star-studded movie in Iran”.

Why? Because each and every one who has starred in the movie is really a star.

I mean the audience already knows what kind of movies that star in and they trust in the movies they are in, and based on this presupposition the audience can predict how the movie will be and accordingly, they make the decision to go and see those movies.

Also, the screenplay was a difficult one. The dialogs were profound and hard to express considering the dialect. It was necessary for all the cast to be eloquent enough and also have good body language to portray the roles because the roles were short.

We chose the cast members with high sensitivity and delicacy. And they did me a favor by being in this movie and they did their best

I thank all of them because they shined really bright in the movie. Even in the short roles that took only a few seconds, we saw great performances.

ifilm: ‘Ashoob’ is a musical and Korosh Tahami usually sings traditional Iranian songs, but in this movie he lip-syncs Vahid Taj’s 11 old tracks.

Tahami: Kazem Rastgoftar told me this movie necessitates that this song be played and the actor lip-syncs it. Giving it a thought, I realized that he’s right.

As they say in the cinema industry, the movie will be more like a film this way.

AI/AG