‘Narges Tears’ reminiscent of leader’s call

NOTE: ifilm website will soon start picture stories of movies in the sacred defense genre. Here’s the introduction to the background of the leader’s call, and the most recent response by cineastes.

Iran film ‘Narges Tears’, just being screened in movie theaters nationwide, is the most recent example of responses to the supreme leader’s 2009 call for production of movies based on values.

The flick, directed by Ahmad Abdollahian, depicts the daughter of a martyred warrior of the sacred defense time, who decades on, is struggling to stick to moral values. Played by Negin Motazedi, she meets a columnist, played by Reza Iranmanesh, who falls in love with her. The man is stranded amidst the pragmatic ideology of his comrades, and the realities of the society around.

Iranmanesh, in real life, is a war veteran and victim of the US-backed Saddam Hussein’s chemical attacks on Iranian soldiers, back in the 1980s.

A response to the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khamenei’s call for more productions of movies in the ‘Sacred Defense’ genre, and the leader’s emphasis that international festivals don’t welcome such fact-based movies (due to the anti-global-hegemony nature of the flicks), Iranian directors have since tried to put more emphasis on the genre.

Ifilm will start bringing you snapshots of the top flicks in the genre, in the form of picture-stories, in near future.

MF/MF