ifilm's exclusive report on Iranian feature ‘Blockage’

Watch ifilm's exclusive report on the Iranian feature film ‘Blockage’ directed by Mohsen Qaraei and produced by Bahman Kamyar, starring Giti Qasemi.

Below are highlights of the report.

ifilm: Mohsen Qaraei has been active in the cinema industry of Iran for years now. After ‘More Power to You’, this is his second feature film.

Those who are employed to remove illegal vendors from the streets, their jobs are to create order in society, and they are witnessing the pleasant and the annoying issues.

Mohsen Qaraei: Anyhow, the theme of the movie is an issue that might not seem so pleasant because of the things it deals with. ‘Blockage’ in reality describes someone who creates difficulties for passerby in the streets to go about their business; those who usually do this are small-time vendors.

It’s very challenging to discuss the phenomenon of blockage and then have a sweet storyline and a happy ending too. It’s very complicated, but in the storyline, I’ve tried to have some moral issues so as to soften the atmosphere a bit and to have some sense of humor to lessen the problems for the audience and prevent them from being sad because this way they might dislike the film.

ifilm: The director had chosen the cast members while writing the screenplay.

Mohsen Qaraei: When I was writing the proposal, I had thought about some characters. For example, regarding Nader Fallah, I thought about him from the very beginning. I made him the offer during a play he was working on.

With regards to Hamed [Behdad], I had never thought about anyone else except him. Also, Baran Kosari and Mohsen Kiyaei. In fact, they were all my first choices. I was very lucky for the producer to like my choices and help them on board.

ifilm: Considering the social theme of the movie, producers didn’t have an eye on the box office sales at the beginning; however, they wanted it to be well received by the audiences, and I think that’s more important, don’t you think?

Bahman Kamyar: The truth is that our incentive for making the film was not the box office in the beginning. We didn’t calculate how much it’s going to make in the end.

I was sure that when it’s screened, it will be able to click with the audience, considering the previous film made by Mr. Qaraei, which attracted the attention of the audience and critics.

AI/MG