Exclusive: 35th Fajr Film Festival, Day 6

ifilm’s exclusive report from the 6th day of the 35th Fajr Film Festival. Special guests include film producer Mohsen Chegini, director Peyman Qasemkhani, actor Reza Rooygari, and visual effects artist Hossein Roozbahani.

Below is a rough transcription of the report’s highlights.

ifilm: Welcome to the latest edition of Cinema ifilm coming to you from the 35th Fajr Film Festival located in the heart of Milad Tower.

We’re going to go to a directorial debut by Peyman Qasemkhani. Check it out.

Chegini: Peyman and I worked with each other for years. We made many TV series together. We have been business partners for a few years as well.

Like the series we made for TV, suddenly he had a new idea to make a movie. We made the series ‘Pejman’, ‘Medical Building’, ‘Passengers’, ‘Barareh Nights’ and ‘Tiptoe’. We’ve worked together for a long time.

Rooygari: Peyman has shown his talent in directing and scriptwriting. He did great and I really enjoyed it, although, I was ill at that time and I couldn’t play well.

A lot of the scenes were edited out and I don’t know why. Majid and I taunted each other a lot, and it was very sweet.

Qasemkhani: Some of the things can’t be predicted but that’s a huge part of it. Some say that comedies are very complicated and it’s hard to make the Iranian audience laugh, I don’t really believe that.

Chegini: In comedies, the main task of a director is guiding the performances and creating the right atmosphere. In this regard, Peyman has enough experience because of the previous work he’s done so it wasn’t difficult for him.

As you can see, the movie has a good comic atmosphere and the work has turned out well.

Qasemkhani: In special moments or in comedic situations, many things are involved; the gesture and the dialogs, the stress on each word, even the punctuation issue, these are all important and have to be considered, in order for the comic situation to work out. A five-second silence and any incident that happens after that can cause great laughter; at times it’s that silence that brings out the laugh.

I’ve worked with many directors who were familiar with this issue. They could make good use of jokes, and then there have been jokes that have just been wasted despite my efforts.

ifilm: Let me tell you about one of the most acclaimed visual effects people in all of Iran in the world of theater. His name is Hossein Roozbahani and we have just arranged an exclusive interview with Cinema ifilm. Let’s check out the man who’s taken home the most Simorghs for visual effects.

Roozbahani: I’ve received 9 Crystal Simorgh awards; ‘Fire Prayer’, The Rules of the Game’, ‘The Night it Happened’, ‘Duel’, ’33 Days’, ‘City of Chaos’...I’ve never thought to receive an award for the movie ‘City of Chaos’.

At that time I had a movie ‘Good Night Commander’, or ‘The Intersection’. I received an award for ‘The Intersection’ from the House of Cinema; the scene that the car rolled over. Unfortunately, they jury didn’t pay attention to any of these movies at the Fajr Film Festival, but like ‘City of Chaos’.

I couldn’t believe it because it was a historical movie and not that much effort was needed to make it. But it received an award.

 Pejman Jamshidi: I really liked my role in the movie. I used to laugh when I was playing my role. I like the comedy genre more and I think it’s very difficult. I was stressed because making the people laugh, people who are serious in their judgment is not an easy task.

AI/AG