Publication of less told narratives about Cannes and Iranian cinema
Mohammad Haqirat, who has recently published the book “Secrets and Lies” of the Cannes Film Festival, says: This book is a praise of Iranian cinema, which has gained prestige for this country on the international stage, and it is called the “Cultural Ambassador of Iran”. It is mentioned.
Charso Press: In a short article about his book published in Persian, this critic wrote: Years ago, an important critic of Le Monde newspaper wrote: “We knew Iran with oil, carpets and pistachios, from now on we must add Iranian cinema to it. »
In another part, the truth has been mentioned: “I have closely followed Iranian cinema and Iranian directors over the years and have been with many of them in festivals – since two years before the revolution (1977) in France, I started introducing Iranian cinema at the Cinematheque in Paris. and then I had introduced many Iranian films to the festivals of the three continents (Nantes) of France, the Cannes Festival, etc., and I also encouraged the French distributors to buy these films – the day I went to the Cannes Festival with Mr. Abbas Kiarostami in 1994 We went for “Under the Olive Trees”, he encouraged me a lot to prepare reports and turn them into a book because I was in the course of the formation and growth of Iranian cinema in France and have continued. – Later, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bahman Qobadi and other friends encouraged me in this way – the prestige of Iranian cinema in France and so on was and still is very important to me, this book is also a praise of this cinema, which has gained prestige for Iran in the international scene. and it is known as (Iran’s cultural ambassador).”
In a part of this book, it is stated: “Many movie theater managers in France wanted to have special screenings with Mr. Kiarostami for the general release of the movie “Under the Olive Trees” after the Cannes Festival. On the other hand, the critics Many people in Paris took turns to interview Kiarostami – there was no time, Kiarostami and I went to Lyon by train, a critic who was looking for Kiarostami for an interview came with us to the train station, bought a train ticket and interviewed on the way for two hours He did his interview with Kiarostami, he said very excitedly that it was the best interview he had ever done with a director. When he got off, he immediately bought a return ticket to Paris…
Abbas (Kiarostami) couldn’t believe it, he told me that if I describe these things in Tehran, no one would believe it, you should write it, you have witnessed many adventures, why don’t you write a book about it..?!
The book “Secrets and Lies” contains 22 sections on 393 pages, which are the stages of the release of Iranian films and their reflections in the French press, with the exact release date and sales statistics at the box office with the names of the distribution companies.
Another part of this book refers to the presence of Iranian cinema in the most important international festival (Cannes) from the beginning to the present day, which has published the untold events of this event, as well as separate parts of the book to the works of cinematographers such as Sohrab Shahidthalath, Abbas Kiarostami, Amirnadri, Asghar Farhadi, Jafar Panahi and…
In the first parts of the book, which was published by the publishing house in France and is going to be distributed in Iran, the role of Cinematheque France to introduce Iranian films and in the other part the history of “the first annual festival of Iranian films abroad after the revolution” from the year 1983 in Paris (Cinema Utopia), which continued until 2000, and the importance of the Three Continents Festival (Nantes) and the presence of Iranian cinema and finding French broadcasters are also mentioned.
The title of the book “Secrets and Lies” is influenced by the film of the same name by Mike Lee, which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996, and a year later, Iranian cinema won the Palme d’Or with the film “Taste of Cherry” (Abbas Kiarostami). Iran brought