The ins and outs of making the first movie about Hazrat Masoumeh (PBUH)
Fars News Agency – Cinema Group: The movie “Akht al-Reza” directed by Seyed Mojtaba Tabatabai, which is being screened in cinemas all over the country these days, tells the story of the journey of Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh) from Madinah to Qom. This work is a product of the Surah Cinematic Organization and was made with the participation of the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh (PBUH) and Karbala Networks (Otbah Hosseini).
Historical works are of particular importance in Iranian cinema, knowing the history of Islam is a gift that a historical film brings to its audience.
Earlier, Seyyed Mojtabi Tabatabai had said about his film: “This film work, or rather a documentary drama, or a fictional documentary, was my third historical experience in the field of Islamic history; In the previous works, I was in the position of producer or producer, and in the case of Salman Farsi’s film, we had a good collaboration with Otba Abbasi (AS), and after this incident, in the reflection of seeing this film in the country of Iraq and in the countries of Persian Gulf happened, we saw that it was very well received.
For this reason, for the next experience, we were invited to recreate a 30-40-minute documentary in Atbah Hosseini and the holy province of Hazrat Masoumeh. One of our challenges was that we could not get too close to the innocent character of Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh) in this film, and this work had many considerations; That’s why we tried to spread the news in complete silence so that less sensitivities are aroused, and when the filming of the first phase of the project was done, we found the courage to turn it into a docu-drama.
Tabatabai also said about how and to what extent he had a documentary approach to this work: “I, because I started from theater and plays, and the meeting place was religious theater, and people had a special favor towards theater, so the first step was this. that we wanted to do a ritual work in this work, a work based on ideology with a view to the holy personality. For this purpose, there are many serious considerations.
That is, either I should go for historical documents, in which format I can present a good defensible documentary, but lacking in visual and dramatic appeals, or I should go for stories and dramas, in which case I should involve my imagination. Regarding such works related to the innocents, there are considerations that have two wings, one wing of content and one wing of technique, that wing of content is very complex and requires a lot of care, so my hands were tied in my artistic imagination; However, I included situations in the story that would not harm those historical documents.
Mohammad Sadegh Ramezani is one of the main actors who was present from the idea to the execution of the movie Akht al-Reza. According to him, the idea of this project was formed in his mind about 8 years ago, and in this regard, he followed the process of research, selection of agents, funding for the project; In addition, he managed the filming of this movie project. Due to the fact that Ramezani has had a significant contribution to the formation and production process of Akht al-Reza, we sat down to talk with him to find out how and why this film project was made.
You can read this conversation below:
The initial idea of ”Akht al-Reza” came from the heart of an exhibition
The director of the film project “Akht al-Reza” said about how to produce this work from the idea stage to the execution: About 7-8 years ago, I had the honor of working in the field of public relations at the threshold of Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh) and proudly I was working as a servant and I really wanted to do something at that time.
He added: The initial idea of producing this movie came from the place where an exhibition was held in the eastern parking lot of Hazrat Masoumeh (S) shrine, and in this exhibition, the movement of Hazrat Masoumeh (S) from Madinah to Qom was planned and different groups in Sans Different stories came and each part had a narrator and they explained the death of Hazrat from the beginning to the end. I had seen such a space for the first time and almost the idea of the work was formed from there.
Ramezani continued: One or two years later, during the management of Mr. Javad Beheshtipour, I suggested the production of a movie in the public relations of the holy threshold of Hazrat Masoumeh (PBUH). At that time, we mostly made short items and music videos for births and deaths for networks; He and I had this mentality that these are good, but we have to do something bigger for Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh). Mr. Beheshtipour had a meeting with several people in which I was also present, and it was agreed that we would conduct a preliminary research on Hazrat Masoumeh (PBUH) and it would be a 15-20 minute documentary.
He added: I invited Mrs. Maryam Soglatoni, who is a successful writer and researcher, for this work. In less than a month, Ms. Saqlatoni used the resources that existed in the Research Institute of Hazrat Masoumeh (PBUH) and other resources that were available to her. The result of this effort was a 100-page research that was provided to us. Mr. Mustafa Nikzad wrote the final script by referring to these sources, and after the production and filming stages, the work began.
The director of the film project “Akht al-Reza” also said about the choice of Seyyed Mojtabi Tabatabai as the director of this work: Mr. Tabatabai is my teacher and he was one of the first people we approached. We all believed in his perseverance and Mr. Tabatabaei accepted this work with all his heart and one of his morals is that he will stand by his morals and knowledge until the end when he accepts a job and he will do justice until the last moment. This work was fought.
Corona caused a two-year break in the production process of “Akht al-Reza”.
Mohammad Sadegh Ramezani also mentioned about the most important challenges of the production of the movie “Akht al-Reza”: when we wanted to start the work, we faced the difficult year of the spread of the corona virus, and one of our challenges was to start the project. Corona caused an interruption of almost a year and a half to two years, and unfortunately, the production process caused a heavy and catastrophic inflation within two years, to the extent that the amount that was considered two years ago, has decreased almost ten to fifteen times its value. Was.
He added: Another challenge for us to attend the location was that we were waiting at the Noor Taban company for about 7-8 months. At that time, the Noor Taban company was very busy and due to the various recordings that were in Noor town. We did not have time. Finally, with the follow-up done by Astan and the kindness of our friends, Mr. Hossein Vaezian, the manager of Noor Cinema Town, and Mr. Parviz Fattah, provided us with this town for free, and our worries were reduced a lot, and we said that as long as there is a break, the inflation will be high. It goes and we hit the start button and started working.
Referring to the low budget of “Akht al-Reza” during the filming and the serious challenge of the group, this cinematographer emphasized: When the first phase was filmed, we faced the challenge of lack of budget. For example, in my area, in our technical discussion, the cost we had was very low, after consulting with our friends, we said how to fix the weakness, they said that the only way is to take the technical equipment from the threshold, and the cost of this work can be spent on other things. to be Mr. Jafar Adib was kind enough to bring relatively up-to-date equipment from Iraq at that time and it helped us a lot, and the technical guys and the filming team did their best.
The knot that was untied by Habib Vali Nejad
Referring to the special role of Habib Wali Nejad in solving the financial problems of this film, the director of the film project “Akht al-Reza” stated: “The first phase of filming ended early due to the bad financial conditions we had and the work was not finished.” Astan Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh) also did not have much financial potential to record new plans, Astan Imam Hossein (pbuh) had spent as much as he could and there was no place for him to inject money into the project and now we went to different places and We showed the samples of the work we had done to several organizations.
Ramezani further said: I don’t remember the day when Mr. Habib Vali Nejad came and saw the teaser for a few minutes. The energy of this honorable man was extraordinary. They even came to our recording one day and honored us and told us not to be tired, and we went to the shrine with them, and when we came back, he said that tomorrow I will arrange to go to Mr. Mohammad Sasan at the Soura Film Organization and I will order them to help, because this work is worth it. It helps.
He emphasized: “Really, the success of this work was the participation of the Sourah Cinema Organization and the art department.” We went to Mr. Sasan and they saw the existing version and came up with this plan so that the Surah Cinema Organization would participate in this project as one of the partners. With these conditions, the plan was redesigned and we started the second phase of filming the project and the work really came alive.
This director continued: “Sura Organization gave many consultations in this field and invited Mr. Hadi Moghadam Dost as a project consultant. The result of supporting and trusting the youth of the city made the work come to an end. Filmmaking kids who work in the cities hope for the same kind of support from the artistic field all over the country.
In the end, Ramezani stated: As the photography director of Akht al-Reza, I achieved my dream of 7-8 years ago and even beyond that. This project faced many problems and challenges in the production process, but with the help of Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh), who is the main owner of this work, many of these obstacles were removed, and we hope that this film will be satisfied and approved by Hazrat Masoumeh (pbuh) and Ahl al-Bayt. A) and his lovers should be placed.