Executive Manager of the Festival Palace, Ashkan Khatibi insisted on providing a peaceful and intimate place with a perfect timetable in the 34th FIFF palace, Charsou Cineplex.
According to the Public Relations Office of the 34th Fajr International Film Festival, Ashkan Khatibi the Executive Manager of Charsou Cineplex who is also the Executive Manager of the 34th FIFF palace in an interview referred to the main role of an executive manager and necessity of organizing the programs and said, “since I am working in cinema, theatre and music I have my own interests and try not to be neutral. But the most of the plans and programs depend on the decisions made by the festival director, Mr. Mirkarimi.”
Khatibi also described about some problems like traffic restrictions and audiences access to the festival palace and said, “We are living in a city where there is traffic problem in its each part. Organizing a perfect scheduled festival requires an exact time table; otherwise, everything would be fall down like a domino. So things would be run better in that part of the city with less traffic jam.”
He added, Charsou Cineplex is comfortably accessible. Citizens of Tehran are not using their personal cars necessarily. Held in each part of the city, audiences would come to see those they like and the location of the palace is not a big deal. However, there would be some security plans to avoid disturbing celebrities. During the festival, for instance, fifth, sixth and seventh floors of the palace are exclusively controlled by the festival organizers and two VIP elevators will carry festivals guests from parking lot to the top of the building.”
Khatibi pointed to the crowded days of Charsou Cineplex in Norouz and insisted, “Getting film tickets in Norouz is difficult in Charsou and this proves that people recognize Charsou as a standard cinema, of course it takes time to turn it to a cultural stamping ground but I believe that it is in a right way. Excluding screening films, here, we have literature nights, retrospective of Iran’s 1980s cinema, films panel discussions. Besides, we were the only Cineplex that hold a retrospective of FIFF since now.”
This cinema and theatre actor elaborated about the effects of holding FIFF in Charsoo and its role to increase its reputation and make it a cultural stamping ground and mentioned, “Holding a festival will influence everything from the entrances to the restaurants, after all it’s a big event. So it will be helpful to introduce a cinema and cultural event. However, it doesn’t mean that Charsoo is just known because of the festival.”
He added, “Moreover, each cultural complex has groups of routine visitors that may not come for just watching movies. They may come for eating or friendly gatherings. When the festival is holding in the complex it changes many things do these groups expect that everything becomes as it used to be as soon as possible.”
Khatibi also pointed to the Tehran Short Film Festival in Charsoo Cineplex and stated, “The main and most important responsibility of Charsoo staff is that turning it to its normal routine after the events.”
He described holing events as a big exam and said, “obviously, when a big event is running, there are more people at the complex, and this is a big exam for staff to evaluate their potential. For example, the sixth floor which was used as waiting hall is a large area but it is using for the film market booths so we have lost a huge area but other programs are run as their routine.”
The 34th edition of Fajr International Film Festival will be held from April 20th to 25th, 2016 in Tehran, under supervision of well-known Iranian filmmaker, Mr. Reza Mirkarimi, who is also managing director of Khaneh Cinema.
