iFilm exclusive report on ‘Pari and the Thief’

iFilm exclusive report on the award-winning children’s movie ‘Pari and the Thief’, with director Hossein Qana’at and child actor Parsia Shakoury.

Below is a transcription of the report's highlights.

iFilm: Those who deal with children have to keep their inner child alive, and Hossein Qana’at is of no exception.

Qana’at: I cannot lie even. Even when it comes to my social interactions with others, I can’t act based on plans I’ve made in advance. So, when I want to chose the people behind the camera, I try to… it’s not because of the way I view children’s entertainment, I think it’s a prerequisite for the people involved in children’s entertainment to be patient, simple and healthy.

iFilm: When a filmmaker wants to make a movie for children, they have to find out about their feedback, and there are many ways to do this.

Qana’at: I don’t mean they are different from the children 10 or 15 years ago. Today’s children are even different from the children who were born five years ago or even three years ago and that’s because the world is ever changing due to new technologies and multi-media platforms that are invented each and every day. They are updated every moment. You can’t teach today’s children through films or stories and tell them that they shouldn’t touch matches; this way of teaching is old-fashioned. Every two-year-old child knows these things now.

I daydream for the cinema of children. I like day-dreaming. And for children, when I enter their world, I don’t want any of the other issues involved.

iFilm: The movie ‘Pari and the Thief’ is one of the few movies that is made for children where it’s not solely about children. And the screenplay of this movie went through a lot of changes to become what it is now.

Qana’at: The first proposal I had written for this film was called ‘The Kindergarten for Old Men’. It was about a grandfather who opens up a kindergarten along with another old man. I wrote the draft and it underwent many changes till it became ‘Pari and the Thief’. Everything was sparked from a certain point.

In my free time, I read books for children whether they’re Iranian or non-Iranian. It makes no difference. And in my opinion, unfortunately not much attention has been paid to children’s literature. The non-Iranian books are much better in this regard.

iFilm: The casting process of a children’s project is really hard and when a director wants to work with children he will definitely have a really hard time. And for your information, 25 kids star in this movie.

Qana’at: Children, especially today’s children, are really smart and have made it really easy for us to choose. All children somehow have the potential to be actors. All it takes is for you to talk to them and see how talented they are. Then you have to try to put together a good behind the camera cast to help the child forget about the scene and melt into the role.

iFilm: An actor might join a project at the last moment. And because a director wants that actor to be in his movie, he will make sure to create a role for him in his movie.

Qana’at: I had already chosen the children in my screenplay. Then they told me there’s this boy I have to see. When he entered the room, I was shocked to see how sweet and nice looking he was. In fact, the part he has in ‘Pari and the Thief’ was especially written for him.

Shakoury: Mr. Qana’at had already chosen his cast but his friends insisted on him seeing me, they had seen me in one of the series I had starred in. They asked him to see me and give them his opinion. I was told to go there, to Mr. Qana’at’s office. I auditioned and was chosen.

iFilm: The movie ‘Pari and the Thief’ reminds us a lot of the famous movie ‘Home Alone’.

Qana’at: I think ‘Home Alone’ is one of the best films made for children. It affected everyone. For sure, the last scenes in ‘Pari and the Thief’ are like the scenes in ‘Home Alone’. All of the ‘Home Alone’ movies were based on the fact that the punishments would get harsher as the movie moved forward. We don’t need these kinds of scenes in our cinema industry. Yes, when I was writing this scene, I was thinking to make use of the plots that are used in ‘Home Alone’, but in our film, it will not take more than three minutes.

iFilm: If you are a parent or you have any kids in your family don’t forget to take them to the cinema and introduce them to the cinema.

AI/AI