It is strange for them that we provide quality work!

Charso Press: After the animated film “The Last Story”, Ashkan Rahgoz (writer and director) started the production of two other works. The movie animation “Juliet and the King” with a look at the formation of western theater during the period of Naseruddin Shah Qajar and the movie animation “Dragon’s Treasure” combining the theme of drought and Iranian legends are the next two animations that the passer is making.

Recently, both of these animations have appeared in European festivals, when a passer-by revealed the details of the presence of these two cinematic animations.

The animated films “Dragon’s Treasure” and “Juliet and the King” have been accepted at the international festival of Stuttgart, Germany and Annecy, France. Explain about these festivals.

As you said, in the last few weeks, we experienced two important international appearances. In the first case, the animated film “Dragon’s Treasure” was accepted in the Work in Progress section of the Stuttgart ITFS Animation Festival, Germany. This festival, which has been held in Germany since 1982, is considered one of the most important European festivals in the field of animation, which has been held for more than 30 years. In this part of the festival, we had a chance for 20 minutes to introduce the project and explain our motivations from the production of “Dragon’s Treasure” to the stages of research and development on the script and idea. Of course, it goes without saying that “Dragon’s Treasure” was present in France’s Mifapitch’s Annecy section in 2021 and was introduced to international producers and broadcasters during that period of the festival.

What about “Juliet and the King”?
France’s Annecy International Festival, which is held in June, at the end of June, has also accepted the animated film “Juliet and the King” in the Work in Progress section. On the contrary, the festival of Stuttgart, Germany, which is considered a side section in the works-in-progress section, and in Annecy, France, this section is one of the main, important and popular sections of the festival. For this reason, the duration of our presentation in this panel will be 70 minutes. This section is so important for the Annecy Festival that they have introduced a French mentor to us, and since the beginning of May, we, the French broadcaster, and this festival mentor have been planning and producing content for the “Juliet and the King” panel.

The main audience of this part of the festival are the experts in the field of animation, including producers, representatives of production studios, global broadcasters and animation creators. It is very important for Annecy Festival to have projects in this section that are curious, and it is also important to convey the experiences of the creators of these projects in terms of the process they go through and the technologies they use to make their works.

Has Iranian animation appeared in this section before?
Until now, no animation from Iran has participated in the works in progress section of Annecy Festival, it is even better to say that no animation from the Middle East region has been accepted in this broadcast so far. In fact, next to a project from Japan, we are the only Asian representatives in this sector. Other works, which are about 16 cinematic, serial, short and experimental (VR) projects from countries such as Germany, America, Belgium, etc., are present.

What is the importance of attending these festivals for your works?
The most important thing that happens in these sectors is the acquaintance of the producers, that is, the investors and global distributors with the projects, which can help the success of the project in the future, that is, the time of its release and screening. On the other hand, in these panels, there are also film reporters who help the media coverage of the works. In fact, the podium that is provided to project creators in Annecy guarantees the attention and credibility of the project in the future. Just as we had this experience before in the animated film “The Last Story” in a different way, and although Iran’s economic sanctions prevented us from continuing our cooperation with foreign investors, at the same time, attending this festival led them to work. to come On the other hand, participating in this section of festivals increases the chances of receiving awards for these works.

What effect does the presence of a work from Iran in these sections have on Iranian animation in general?

First of all, due to negative publicity, many audiences of these festivals do not expect to see a quality work from our country. It is strange for them that a group of young artists, very professional and using the latest animation production methods, have presented a quality work from Iran. In fact, I can boldly say that the platform that has been provided to us is a platform for introducing Iranian animation. We hope that these appearances will open the way for other works of our country, just as after the appearance of “The Last Story” in Annecy, two multimedia animations were accepted in the section where “The Last Story” was present.

At what stage are these two animations?
The recording of the characters of “Juliet and the King” is over. Since this work is a musical, we have collaborated with singers such as Behzad Bemrani and Omid Nemati for the character song, and we are considering collaborating with several other singers and we hope that the production of this animation will be completed by the end of the year. . As for “Dragon’s Treasure”, it is still in development, the script has been rewritten several times. For this, we took the help of an artificial intelligence called “Largo”, which was introduced at the Cannes Film Festival 2020. The production of this animation will begin after the end of “Juliet and the King”.

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