January,20 2018
A five-day-long film festival titled Iranian Film
Festival, will be held in Mumbai to celebrate the culture and cinema of India
and Iran.
The film fest will begin from January 22 and continue till
January 26.
Five films have been selected for the screening at the
festival including the Indo-Iran collaborative film "Hello Mumbai" featuring
Bollywood actress Dia Mirza and popular Iranian actor Mohammad Reza Golzar.
Interacting with the media on Friday, Mahdi Zare, the Director of the
Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said: "The idea of organising
this festival is to create a platform for cultural exchange between two
countries -- India and Iran."
The screening will take place at the
Ravindra Mini Theatre.
"While it is a positive sign how Iranian people
are taking interest in Indian films, it is great to observe how Indian film
lovers are also watching Iranian cinema," Mahdi Zare said.
"Through this
festival, we want to spread out the beauty of Iranian cinema to the people of
Mumbai. Every cinema manifest the society and culture of its country. During the
inaugural programme, we will also show a 20-minute film on Iran to give an
overview of the country and Iranian culture, society. We are looking forward to
host cine lovers to watch films."
The festival has been organised by the
Culture House of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Federation of Film Societies
of India.
Asked about the reception of Indian films in Iran, a young
filmmaker Azar Faramarzi said that like any other country, the common people
prefer to watch "masala films" in Iran and, therefore, "they like Bollywood".
"In Iran, common people love to watch Indian cinema because of its
song-dance saga. They like watching vibrant colours, festival, celebration that
most of the mainstream Bollywood show us."
"Small budget, story-driven
art house films are for students, festival moviegoers and people like us," said
Azar who travelled to cities like Mumbai, Pune and Agra and currently planning
to make a film set in India.
"This festival will create a platform to
start a conversation between two countries not only on creative collaboration
but also business networking. Whether it is Majid Majidi's 'Beyond the cloud',
Ghorban Mohammadpour's 'Hello Mumbai', the opportunity for collaboration is
opening," she added.