Iran director tells Trump to watch ‘Breath’ for education

Iran director Narges Abyar, whose drama ‘Breath’ is to vie at the Academy Awards (The Oscars) 2018, as Iran’s representative, says the US president Donald Trump needs to watch her film to learn about Iran’s noble culture.

Talking to Reuters, she added that the flick can help the US society know that Iranians, despite the US politicians’ claims, are not terrorists.

As the first Iranian woman whose film is to stand for Iran in the Oscar Awards competition, she noted that Trump uses the rhetoric of threat against Iran, casting doubts on whether he would reuse such discourse after watching the ‘Breath’.

Responding to some critics of her movies, she pinpointed that over 3000 kids were killed during Iraq’s imposed war on Iran, and added ‘why should I not show all that?’

‘Breath’ has a soft screenplay of antiwar nature. It depicts the story of four kids, Bahar, Nader, Kamal and Maryam who are growing up in the early 80s amid Iraq’s imposed war on Iran.

As the lead role, Bahar has a world replete with fascinating childish dreams that never come true as the war wouldn’t make room for them to.

Part of the movie’s synopsis reads: The story of the film begins in the 1970s in a suburb of Karaj, where the four kids live with numerous colorful dreams of their childhood along with their father and granny. The mother of the household, however, has died a few years ago.

The father, who suffers from asthma, works for a shoemaking company. In her dreams, Bahar, who narrates the story of the film, wishes to treat him when she becomes a doctor.

Besides ‘Breath’, Abyar has so far directed two other movies, including ‘Track 143’  that won the ‘Audience Award’ for ‘Best Movie’ and in which Merilla Zarei was awarded the best supporting actress Crystal Symorgh at the 32nd Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran, Iran.

‘Breath’ won a number of Crystal Simorghs, including the one for Best Film with National View at the 34th edition of the Fajr Film Festival in February, 2016, in Tehran, as well as two for the best supporting actress for Shabnam Moghaddami . It has also been honored at various international cinematic events.

‘Breath’ has also been honored at various international cinematic events.

Abyar bagged two Best Direction awards for the feature at the 2016 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival and the 12th Vancouver International Women In Film Festival in Canada.

Former Iran submissions to the Oscars have brought the country four nominations and two awards, including Asghar Farhadi’s Best Foreign Language Film awards for ‘A Separation’ and ‘The Salesman’, respectively in 2012 and 2017.

The Oscars is an annual US awards ceremony to honor cinematic achievements in the film industry.

MF/MF