ifilm's exclusive report on Iranian animation ‘Kelileh & Demneh’

Watch ifilm's exclusive report on the Iranian animated movie ‘Kelileh & Demneh’ directed by Alireza Tavakkoli-Bina and produced by Zahra Hashemi-Bahrami.

Below are highlights of the report.

ifilm: Being active in literature for so long, the producer and director decided to make an animation on ancient literature.

Zahra Hashemi-Bahrami: We’ve been working on literature for children and teenagers at Taher Institute for years.

I mean, when my husband and I got back from the US, we felt that not many books have been written on ancient literature; and people don’t know much about them, like ‘Shahnameh’, ‘Kelileh & Demneh’.

ifilm: The reason why filmmakers are discouraged from making animations and movies for children is because of the high risk of this genre.

Alireza Tavakkoli-Bina: Even though it’s an animation and has been made for the young adults, all age groups can enjoy it because it teaches policy-making, wisdom and knowledge. It includes all the themes that exist in the books on ethics worldwide and in all regions, and since the story revolves around animals, it’s very pleasant.

Children can click with it. Young children can understand the stories. It includes indirect messages.

At least we’ve tried not to send direct messages. And this is very good for elementary school students.

People have to see it because we think that our audience should have an imagination, should be a dreamer. This is what exists in all ancient Iranian tales.

Back then, we didn’t have television, so ancient Iranian writers used to use their imagination and write beautiful stories.

The least we can do is depict them in the best way possible and to revive this old culture. I’m certain that through this we can gain a place in the world cinema industry with regards to children and teenagers.

MG/AI/FM