The 19th edition of the international film festival of Marrakech has brought in legendary award-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi to discuss his remarkable carrier.
Asghar, now the director of nine feature films, developed a passion for cinema from a very young age. At the royal hall of the congress palace, Asghar’s translator took care of translating every single word of his to cinema students, lovers and professionals.
Before telling the audience about his cinematic universe, he expressed how happy he is to be around cinema lovers, and greeted the courage of “my people for fighting for their lives in my home country now first of all, like all Iranians I follow everything that’s going on now which makes me terribly sad now, but I keep a lot of hope for the future.”
Farhadi’s love for cinema started when he was 11. He was a child who went to the cinema to watch a movie; following his late arrival he realized that he missed the first part of the movie.
“After that, I spent a long time trying to imagine what I missed,” said the director.
Asghar loves cinema that has a democratic link with the viewer and that doesn’t force the viewer to follow a certain character and by that supports their choices.
‘A separation’ written and directed by him was released in 2011. The movie received the Oscar Academy award for best foreign movie and opened Iranian cinema to a larger audience.
The movie talks about an Iranian couple in court, and the most memorable scene is one of a camera being placed where the judge normally sits.
“My friends told me that the movie won’t do well outside of Iran, and I said that it was okay,” said Farhadi.
On his choice of angle and frame, he explained that before rehearsing the scene with the two main actors, he pictured many possible angles and frames.
But “when we started rehearsing, I was seated in front of them like a judge I was very absorbed by their talent so I gave up all the angles and different povs and frames which resulted in the judge’s pov.”
Asghar won an Oscar for his brilliant movie which according to him “changed his life forever.”
“Before my success”, explains Farhadi, “whenever I used to not answer a text or email people thought it was okay and that I was just busy, but post winning an Oscar, they say I’m cocky.”
The director talked about his second Oscar-awarded movie: ‘The Salesman’.
“This was made for my assistant who wanted to make his first movie but he couldn’t finance it so he gave me back the scenario,” explained the director.
When he reread the script, he figured that something was lacking so he developed the personality of the main character, who plays the salesman, further.
Farhadi expressed his desire to film a movie in Southern Italy because the area still disposes of cozy villages that look appealing to the director.
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