As reported by the public relations office of the 34th FIFF, the Darolfonoun Section hosted Majid Majidi, the prominent Iranian filmmaker at the very first workshop of the festival. In a hall full of attendees, Majid Majidi shared his filmmaking experiences.
At the beginning of the session, Head of the Darolfonoun Section, Maziar Miri, welcomed the guests and expressed his joy about the opportunity being provided for people from different cultural backgrounds to gather in one place, and take advantage of domestic and international instructors. He said, “There will be a prize for anyone making a creative work of art using their cellphone or camera.”
Miri called Majidi the one director whose name has unintentionally been tied to Prophet Muhammad and this is an honor for us Iranians.
The director of the festival, Reza Mirkarimi, also took the stage and said that having added the Darolfonoun Section to the festival, he has seen one of his dreams come true. He called the Darolfonoun Section the most important part of the festival and expressed his hope in seeing the participants as filmmakers in the upcoming editions of Fajr.
After some rarely seen images of “Muhammad, the Messenger of God” were shown to the audience, Majidi said that the Darolfonoun Section was a precious experience and added that he hoped the festival could be an opportunity for sharing experiences with young cinephiles.
He said, “You just saw some images from my last film, the production of which took about 7 years. It was a huge project not only for me, but for Iranian Cinema since a lot of big names were involved in it. But now I want to tell you about when I started my career about 30 years ago. I made my first feature film in 1991 in Sistan & Balouchestan. I wasn’t interested in making “Badouk”, that’s why the producer asked me to pursue my documentary-making career. I felt I couldn’t say what I wanted to say through documentaries, though. He didn’t trust me and finally he agreed on producing this film with about half the budget was specified to films then.”
Majidi added, “I couldn’t make films for three years after “Baduk”. I wrote “Father” and “The Children of Heaven” and decided to pursue my career despite all the difficulties. Both films were finally made and “The Children of Heaven” was nominated for an Academy Award. If you believe in what you’re doing and insist on it you’ll achieve what you want. “The Children of Heaven” was universally acclaimed and that film made it much easier for me to continue with more confidence and make some more films like “The Color of God”, “Baran”, “The Willow Tree”, and “Muhammad, the Messenger of God. You should believe in God and rely on His help.”
The 34th edition of Fajr International Film Festival is being to 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.
