ifilm exclusive with Setareh Eskandari

Iranian actress Setareh Eskandari speaks to ifilm in an exclusive interview about her artistic career and the projects she is currently involved in.

Before becoming a household name in Iranian cinema and Television, Setareh Eskandari, she was active in theater productions. The actress still feels more attached to theater and respect the art of performance on stage.  

Eskandari quit studying English translation at university to enter the world of theater. The Iranian actress made her television debut in 1995 and found fame with the series ‘Narges’ (2006).

She made her cinematic debut with ‘Rival of the Heart’ in 1997 and won the Best Actress Award at the Fajr theater festival in 2001 for ‘The Joy of Influencing the Lives of the Unfortunate’. Eskandari has starred in the series ‘The Gradual Death of a Dream’ (2006), ‘Until Morning’ (2006), ‘Factor 8’ (2008) and ‘Passion to Fly’ (2011).

Some of her movies include ‘The Visitor to Rey’ (2000), ‘Parya's Story’ (2010), ‘Yousef’ (2010) and ‘Unplanned’ (2013).

Below is a rough translation of selected parts from the interview conducted by ifilm in Persian:

ifilm: Since you are a versatile actress with productions in cinema and theater as well as on Television and, Can I say which of these areas is your favorite?

Eskandari: To me, in each of these areas, expertise matters first and foremost. Looking at it as an actress, I perefer not to make borderline between various fields. This is while, I grew up with theater and work hard on theater stages before gaining popularity on Television. For that reason, theater is different for me. The fact of the matter is, theater is sacred to me.

ifilm: How is your feeling different towards theater stages? Please elaborate on it more.

Eskandari: In theater, mind and thoughts come first. Careful thoughts and reflection rule in theater. Such feature makes more feel more close to theater.

ifilm: Ms. Eskandari, three movies featuring you as an actress were submitted to this year’s Fajr Film Festival. They include ‘Mali and Her Unpaved Roads’, ‘Fish Lake’ and ‘The Paper Home’. Among the three, ‘Fish Lake’ was chosen to be screened at Iran Cinema Perspective. What do you think of the Fajr selections?

The selection committee of Fajr makes choices with more caution; the selection members picked only those that needed less critique and review. I think there are many movies that should have been present at the 2016 edition of the festival. Among the selected films at Fajr Festival, ‘Fish Lake’ is the only movie I played in. The other two were rejected and this really made me upset.  

ifilm: Please talk more about ‘Fish Lake’.

Eskandari: Iranian director Maryam Doustee’s latest movie ‘Fish Lake’ is a Sacred Defense film shown at Fajr Film Festival. It is about events after the Iraq-Iran war when some families with various stroeis get to a common point at some point in the movie. The setting of the film borders between realism and surrealism or the reality and beyond. Due to such setting, the film had subtle points in term of directing and the female director did well in this regard.

ifilm: You and your sister, Laleh Eskandari, costarred in the movie. How is it like to co-star with your sister on the film?

Eskandari: It was really great, but I prefer to talk about it later on after the movie opens in Iranian cinemas.

ifilm: Do you think you can win a Crystal Simorgh at Fajr Film Festival?

Eskandari: I just hope! It goes without saying that in the case of some jury members, they didn’t make good technical choices and it came as a surprise to me.  

AG/AG