a problem called “film smuggling”; The cinema economy is a victim of the Bermuda triangle of lawlessness

According to the film reporter of Fars News Agency, billions of financial losses for the release of an illegal version of any film is a big blow to Iranian cinema, the cost of making a film will be wasted and the production team will no longer have the resources to make a new work.

Film smuggling this year was one of the bitter and frequent incidents of Iranian cinema, which happened to at least 6 important films this year, so that 11% of the released works were smuggled in one year. Despite the words of the Committee for the Protection of Cinematic Works after the smuggling of previous films and the efforts made to prevent the smuggling of films, the movie “Motherless” by Morteza Fatemi was released illegally and caused it to be screened online.

To examine the reasons for this, it is significant to look at the reaction of the two filmmakers regarding the release of their film. Saeed Saadi, the producer of the film “Dreamless”, said in an interview that he was planning to release his film online and requested that the audience view this film legally.

Who benefits from film smuggling?

But on the other hand, Abdolreza Kahani, the director of the film “Aradatmand, Nazanin, Bahare, Tina”, who is in charge of producing this film jointly with Saeed Khani, said a while ago that he plans to publish his film in cyberspace due to not receiving a screening permit, but Khani’s reason for opposition has been abandoned.

Jafar Ansarifar, the secretary of the Security and Combating Unauthorized Distribution and Distribution of Cinematic Works, said that “after receiving the news of the illegal release of the movies “False” and “Dreamless” in the cyber space by the order of the honorable head of the subject organization It was put on the agenda of the security headquarters.”

He believed that the preliminary investigations showed that the protective care was strictly followed and that the works were published “outside of government agencies and probably from the offices of foreign films or festivals.”

“Motherless” and audience support

But now, after all these events, “Motherless” was smuggled and its production team, after the audience welcomed the online screening of this film despite the publication of an illegal version, wrote to their audience: “This is bitter news for us forty-eight hours ago. It was that the series of leaking and smuggling of movies in Iran had reached “motherless”. But on the other side of the coin was the sweet experience of the companionship and sympathy of your dear audience and the companionship of the people of Farhang.

At the beginning of this year, “Layla Brothers” by Saeed Raushiti and “World War III” by Homan Sidi were the works that became victims of the smuggling of cinematographic works. After that, three cinematographic works have been made available to the public through Telegram channels and some websites. “Mani Haghighi and the film “Dreamless” by Arin Vazirdaftari and of course a banned film were added to the list of released films and apparently some people are not disinterested in watching a film without paying for it, remember that even one of the cinema critics He had seen the movie “World War III” in the same way.

Making a movie will cost at least 20 billion for its creators, some of this cost will be compensated at the time of release and if luck favors the production team, it will also give profit to the creators. Meanwhile, online screening is a point that some manufacturers use to sell more. Of course, this possibility was weakened for “Motherless” and after the smuggling of the film.

A big blow to the cinema economy

The cinema economy suffered a serious blow during the Corona era and with consecutive closures, on the other hand, some unrest last year aggravated the insecurity of the cinema economy, but in the end, the efforts of cinematographers and cinema managers made cinema to prosper in any form this year. Take and move several records.

Preventing the smuggling of films is also one of the other things that can help the economy of cinema. The film “World War III” by Homan Sidi was one of the works that could attract a good audience for social cinema, but it was eventually smuggled and released. It had only 138 thousand audience.

Ruhollah Sohrabi, director general of the cinema organization’s screening supervision department, said in this regard and in an interview with Fars news agency’s film reporter that “the quality of the released films is so high that it seems that the files of the works are from the distribution offices themselves or the people who have the original version of the film in They had the right to broadcast it. If a film is released with the title “for review” written on it, the cinema organization is responsible for it. The cinema organization has the duty to protect works, but nothing can be done about these incidents. The work is not in our possession, and only the production team has this file, and it is not possible to set guards for all these offices.”

Saeed Khani, the director of the film distribution company Khane Film, who himself is a victim of film smuggling, says that “the smuggling of a film has various reasons and usually originates from international distribution, there is no possibility that the film will come out of the cinema organization because I myself have been DCP film for years. I give it to Irshad and the original file is not with the cinema organization. However, there is no reason for the distribution office to release a film unofficially.

In the end, he emphasized: “A working group should be formed by the cinema organization with the presence of broadcasters and producers in order to prevent the loss of cinematographic works.”

Legal vacuum is the main culprit

Seyyed Zia Hashemi, the chairman of the board of directors of the producers union, has a completely different view on this issue. Pointing to the point that no distribution office or producer sets fire to their property, he says: “During the various back and forth of the film from domestic to foreign screenings, the version of the film is leaked and causes smuggling of the film.”

He went on to say: “When we don’t have laws, we are bound to have these incidents. At one time, they were physically dealt with and the security police helped in this direction, but in the end, the guilty person who caused the smuggling of a film was fined 20 million tomans.”

This cinema producer further stated: “There is film smuggling in the world, but the security of the works is so high that if a film is smuggled, the culprit will be found quickly and he will be dealt with seriously.”

In the end, Hashemi clarified: “Ultimately, neither the Broadcasting Office nor the Ministry of Guidance is to blame, the main culprit is the absence of the law that created this situation and the Parliament’s Cultural Commission does not even think about it.”

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