ifilm's exclusive report on Iranian feature ‘Little Heroes’

Watch ifilm's exclusive report on the Iranian feature film ‘Little Heroes’ directed by Hossein Qena’at, starring Arjang Amir-Fazli.

Below is a rough transcription of the report.

ifilm: We do have a few good projects for children, and it’s not as if children can go and watch movies at the cinema whenever they feel like it, but we’re not here to analyze this issue, we are here to at least introduce you to one of the good projects that is made for children.

Hossein Qena’at: It’s been a few years I’ve been working on this genre and fortunately during there 2-3 years, ‘The Thief and Pari 1’ and ‘Little Heroes’ have succeeded to be box office hits. Also, ‘The Thief and Pari 2’ is going to hit the silver screens soon... Anyhow, we’re working on this genre and I’d like to continue working on this genre as far as I can. However, I like making films for adults, too. I have some ideas, too. But for the time being, we’re working on movies for children. And I’m happy because I love this genre.

ifilm: The children that play in this movie are teenagers who practice taekwondo. And the interesting thing about this movie is that the presence of Yousef Karami, who is the Olympic champion of taekwondo, who is present in this movie.

Hossein Qena’at: We needed a taekwondo champion in our story. Yousef Karami was introduced to me. He came. He didn’t and doesn’t like to be an actor. He accepted to take on this role because it’s the real life of Yousef Karami. He did us a huge favor. He did really well. He is a very decent guy. Fortunately, he was able to play his role the best way possible. I liked it a lot.

ifilm: The teenagers that acted in this movie are taekwondo students in real life, can you believe it?

We have witnessed children coming out of the cinema halls after watching the movie and trying to do the taekwondo acts with them. That’s adorable and I think that shows that they love the movie.

Arjang Amir-Fazli: At the end of the film, children have been witnessed leaving the cinema halls practicing taekwondo moves, because it’s an action-packed movie. There are many karate kicks in it. Children like it and they usually identify themselves with the characters in the film.

Qena’at: I’ve seen it in Isfahan. When they were doing interviews, some they want to practice taekwondo. This was one of the film’s messages because in recent years, unfortunately, due to the spread of computer games, children have become lazy, they are used to sitting behind computers, they have to wear glasses and they’ve become obese. They eat fast foods a lot. We felt that with this, they’ll become passionate. One of the reasons for choosing taekwondo was to make children interested in sports.

AI/AG