Iranian filmmaker Marjan Khosravi, who won several awards for her shorts, premiered her first film, “Requiem for a Tribe,” at the Shanghai Worldwide Film Competition. The film is in documentary competition and is eligible for the Golden Goblet.
Khosravi has a distinguished profession. Earlier this 12 months, he received awards at Scorching Docs and Fribourg for the short documentary “Mrs. Iranian Wife” and in Budapest for “Horse Dreams.” The feature-length documentary “The Snow Calls” premiered at IDFA in 2020 and won a prize at the Massive Sky Documentary Film Competition.
“Requiem for a Tribe” follows Hajar, a 55-year-old woman from the Bakhtiari tribe of southwestern Iran who is betrayed by her family and forced to abandon her nomadic lifestyle. The film is ready in the context of local weather changes, urbanization and social points have drastically reduced the standard migratory behavior of tribes.
Khosravi had intimate information about the Bakhtiari nomads because he was considered one of them. He was born in the village of Bakhtiari and lived there until 2015 when the family, which included his brother and producer Milad, moved to Tehran to continue to discover and achieve his goal of working in cinema. Metropolis life involved Khosravis, but his mother Marjan and Milad became depressed because he was used to the countryside, surrounded by pure beauty.
Marjan Khosravi was working as an assistant director when he met Hajar Faramarzi. “They talk about their memories of migration for hours. They are like my mother and grandmother who are eager to remember the colorful nature and the nomadic lifestyle of their childhood and youth,” said Khosravi. Election.
With the aim of pleasing his mother, Khosravi continuously presented films of nomadic migration. Considered one of them is Anthony Howarth’s 1976 documentary about the Bakhtiaris known as “Folks of the Wind” and Faramarzi is one of the characters in the film. “I immediately realized that Hajar and her personal story was the idea of ​​my new film and I decided to make a film about her and all the opposite women like her: a conventional woman and her struggle with a trendy life. Her family has always decided for her, but she is not proud of her choice These women are usually not listened to by anyone,” Khosravi said.
A constant problem facing the staff is the rapid pace of modernization in the nomadic areas, which has led to a yearly decline in the various nomadic tribes. They have migrated to cities or villages, and today, only a few nomadic tribes remain. Those who migrate do not achieve this by foot, but by car, Khosravi said.
“Because of this, we had to change many of the film’s events over the years to create a cohesive narrative with a true linear story and an ending that corresponds to each story and actuality. However, I am glad that after all these years, we have able to make this work of analysis necessary to show how existence is constantly changing and how modernization destroys all traditions without thinking about the implications, in a real story way,” added Khosravi.
Khosravis began shooting “Requiem for a Tribe” in 2018 as a self-funded venture. The film started when Spanish producer Stephanie von Lukowicz (“Kinderbilder aus Sarajevo”) watched “The Snow Calls” on the IDFA platform and appreciated Marjan’s work. Under von Lukowicz’s steerage embarked on a full international funding journey that tapped many sources thanks to the Scorching Docs CrossCurrents fund, the Scorching Docs pitch Prize, the DMZ Pitch prize, AJB DOCS, Sunny Facet of the Doc, which helped the staff get the Aljazeera Channel Documentary onboard, and the post fund produced by the Doha Movie Institute. The staff is also negotiating with Milestone Movies, the owner of “Folks of the Wind,” to remove the rights to archival material used from the film.
“Funding for Iranian films that are unfair is very difficult and usually unimaginable. There are some assets for unfair films with the ministry of tradition, but for unfair films in Iran there is no public funding,” said Milad Khosravi. Election. “There are many talented filmmakers in Iran who usually cannot make films independently and more often try to finance films with non-public funds in the country, which is not the best possibility. . Non-public assets and self-investment are always limited , weak financing structures reduce production standards and limit storytelling skills.
“Not so long ago, the theatrical launch of unfair films in Iran has decreased significantly. Then non-public traders who want to spend money on these films are cheaper than before,” added Milad Khosravi. “However, Iran does not have cultural agreements with different international locations, each in the (Middle East) region and globally, (while) worldwide sanctions make official co-productions with other countries very difficult. Because of this, filmmakers who it’s not fair like we can’t learn from public funds from different international locations.
However, the Khosravis soldiers. After the contest, they plan to distribute “Requiem for a Tribe” in the MENA region through their partner Al Jazeera and also give a theatrical launch in the Bakhtiari region of Iran. He also participated in another film known as “Desires of Wild Oaks,” which has a narrative in the same area.
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