Moving words and the promise of a new form of cinema accompanied the world premiere of “Terrestrial Verses” by Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami at the Cannes Film Festival. Presented in the official selection, their film stages a dozen absurd situations through a dozen people trying to resist and not accept an abuse of power that has visibly become normality in today’s Iran. Interview.
RFI : Since last September, since the beginning of the movement “ Woman – Life – Freedom In Iran, we hear a lot about the persecution, oppression and censorship of Iranian filmmakers. Are you surprised to have been able to present Terrestrial Verses (“ Earthly Verses”) at the Cannes Film Festival ?
Alireza Khatami : Are we surprised ?
Ali Asgari : No, we are more excited than surprised. We are really happy to be here.
Alireza Khatami : Yes, we are delighted to be here. They do what they do. We do what we do. We are filmmakers. We make movies. And we try to show them to the public that we find.
At the film’s world premiere, you explained that there has always been resistance in Iran, but there is a new public awareness of the situation. And that this new situation requires “ a new form of cinema “. For what Terrestrial Verses is this a new way of making cinema ?
Alireza Khatami : If you look at what we are used to in Iranian cinema, it is mostly realistic and social cinema with a rather dark vibe. I think it’s no longer effective in telling what’s going on. We wanted to invite people not to look at these social issues, but to examine their roots. We wanted to invite people to think on a more philosophical level. To do this, we needed a cinema liberated from “ my average plan », « your grand plan », « my average plan », « your grand plan »… We had to remove all these ornaments. We want to bring cinema back to the bare bones and see what this bare bone medium is capable of.
You also said that you didn’t want to be the voice of the movement, because the movement already has voices, but that you wanted to be a “ ear “. Is that the reason why the faces of the culprits always stay out of sight ? They are never in front of the camera, because you want to be a “ ear » ?
Alireza Khatami : It’s a very nice interpretation, but we had many reasons not to want to film the other side. We wanted to show the individuals and celebrate the people who resist and who are in constant negotiation with power. All it took was a voice from the other side to create that feeling of a “Big Brother” trying to manage even the smallest details in the most basic things in the lives of its citizens.
In the film, you show the abuse of power at all levels of society: a father is prevented from registering the chosen first name of his new baby, another is blackmailed when he wants to get his driving licence, a young woman is harassed during a job interview, there is the veil imposed for the school ceremony, the absurdity of a filming authorization which turns into censorship… It’s a bit like Kafka in Tehran. Everyone must feel guilty without knowing why. And no one really has any rights. A pupil succeeds in resisting the pressure, because she has compromising images against the principal of the school. For you, images are the key to achieving freedom ?
Ali Asgari : The two young girls, the student and the little girl who dances in the clothing store, use images. The new generation fights more than the previous generations. For this we put the new generation at the beginning of the film and then, step by step, the other generations appear.
But the student was only able to resist, because she had compromising images against the school principal on her phone.
Alireza Khatami : 20 years ago, everyone said: image is power. But today, with the deep fake and new technologies, the image is no longer the power. The power is in the consciousness. Power is a generation that is no longer afraid. My generation grew up with the war. 8 years of war. It created a feeling of fear inside of us. The new generation has never seen this war. The new generation has different demands. Their parents are my generation. And we were different parents. We tried not to transmit fear to them. Today is a courageous and fearless generation. And she is aware of the cost she has to pay. And they are ready to pay it. The real power lies in their courage.
In the film, a man expresses his values in the form of a tattooed poem. Visible tattoos on his arms, his chest, his back… A consciousness inscribed forever on his body. Here, in Cannes, the actresses in your film did not wear the veil. Do you feel like the new generation has passed the point of no return ?
Alireza Khatami : We defend the idea that people have the right to wear what they want. In the film, we show both sides of this argument. We’re not here to tell people what they should or shouldn’t wear. I don’t even want to talk about what my actresses wore today in Cannes. It is their choice, their conscience. We don’t really discuss it. We believe that everyone has the right to choose. It is this right to freedom that motivated us to make this film.
What is the most important point of this film for you? ?
Ali Asgari : For us it was very important to talk about this subject in a different way and in a different form. We wanted to make a film different from other Iranian films you have seen. That’s why we chose this shape. And that’s also why we chose humor in the film. We didn’t want to be sad like other movies, we just wanted the characters to be active. We didn’t want passive characters. It was something very important for us. For us, it is very important that everyone has control over their own body.
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