The director of screenings and Special Events of the FIFF announced plans to hold a special photo exhibition upon the special screening of the films ‘Cow’ and ‘The Lover’s Wind’.
Speaking about the reason of his cooperation with the 34th Fajr International Film Festival, Seyfollah Samadian, the director of screenings and Special Events of the FIFF, told the public relations office of the festival that he was there simply because of Reza Mirkarimi who he called “a competent and empiricist director”. “They gave me a general idea of the whole story and the special screenings which we are supposed to have alongside the main programs. So I felt I could cooperate with the festival having my own criteria in mind to manage this section in a more professional way with the help of other friends,” he stated. “What the director of the festival had in mind had a lot in common with what I had long experienced at different cultural and artistic events and particularly with what I had done at the Image of the Year ceremony. So I felt I could develop my practical ideas here. Our mentality and ideas seemed to be practical and realistic and it was a good sign for starting this cooperation,” he added.
According to the director of the Image Film Festival, in this edition, two films from the film treasury of the Iranian cinema and a historical documentary from the museum archive of USSR along with a film by the well-known Russian filmmaker, Alexander Sokurov, are being screened. “The particular positive point about screening the two films from the film treasury of the Iranian cinema, ‘Caw’ and ‘The Lover’s Wind’ is that their high quality repaired versions are being screened along with a photo exhibition from the scenes of these two great films,” he pointed out. Stating that “The photos have been meticulously chosen from among tens of thousands of frames of the two films,” he said that this method of screening repaired films is being practiced for the first time and hoped it will happen again in future editions of the festival. “Such screening with a new way of presenting the film will be surprising not only for the cinephiles but also for the film crew and particularly for the director,” he continued, expressing regret for not having Lamorisse, the director of “The Lover’s Wind” due to the bitter accident resulting in his death.
According to Samadian, “a magnificent documentary about Iran by Vladimir Erofeev is being screened as well,” and he believed that the visual characteristics of the film along with other admirable features make it a brilliant document in the cinematic, cultural, social and economical history of Iran. “This documentary presents us with pictures of Iran 90 years ago, including the conditions of living of artists and craftsmen with the exact details about the population, clothing and architecture of that period, which indicates the particular method of filmmaking in USSR at that time,” Samadian pointed out, explaining that Mr. Mirkarimi saw the film in Tajikistan three years ago and looked for the opportunity to have it screened in Iran, too. He recommended this film and Lamorisse’s ‘The Lover’s Wind’, which displays half a century of Iranian life and astonishing images of Iran, to the cinephiles and students.
In the end, Samadian referred to the screening of Alexsander Sokurov’s ‘Francofonia’, a film about the Louver Museum, in this edition. “The film had particular visual characteristics of its own and with Sokurov’s usual satire, it refers to different historical periods particularly World War II and I recommend that students, visual artists, museum curators and all cinephiles watch it. As in a part of the film it is said that France cannot be known without knowing the Louver, neither can Russia without knowing the Hermitage” he said.
The 34th edition of Fajr International Film Festival will be held from April 20th to April 25th, 2016 in Charsou Cineplex, under the supervision of the well-known Iranian filmmaker, Mr. Reza Mirkarimi, who is also the Managing Director of Khaneh Cinema.
For more information on Fajr International Film Festival, visit the festival website, www.fajriff.com
