The son of the former chairman of the central bank became a director without rent?

Charso Press: Alireza Qasim Khan, the producer of the movie “Column 14” directed by Amir Hossein Hemmati, which is in the final days of its general release in theaters, said about the sales situation of this movie: I think talking about the sales conditions of movies in the current state of cinemas in the country is more than abstract words. . Because before the sales situation of a movie, we have to talk about the situation of Iranian cinema. Today, Iranian cinema is facing new platforms and models of watching movies that we had not thought about before, and it needs rethinking in these areas to revive itself.

In response to the fact that in this situation there are also films that experience very good sales, he explained: In this context, the main reason should be in the type of connection between Iranian cinema and Iranian society. Search did The fact is that our new generation, which includes the age group of 20 to 40 years and is considered as a potential cinema audience, does not provide its visual information and image taste only through watching movies on the cinema screen, and for this reason, we are forced to use methods Let’s think about presenting our works.

The producer of “Column 14” continued: In terms of the success of films, other issues such as actors are also decisive. Some successful movies today have actors who bring audiences to the cinema with them. In this situation, our film was released with three young actors. In “Column 14” we have placed young actors who seem to have had a successful start in cinema alongside Mitra Hajjar. Despite the fact that our film has been seen less, but the performance of these actors in the film has been brilliant.

“Column 14” of the audience cinema He put it on his feet

He emphasized: The director of the movie “Column 14” is a director of his first film, but he is very capable. Apart from Mrs. Hajjar, the actors of the film have perhaps been less seen in movies, but with our film, their performances were also seen. One of the owners of the cinemas told me that we screened your movie on some days with full capacity and on some days with half capacity, but the interesting thing was that in both cases, after the movie finished, the audience sat down and watched the credits. The type of narrative and structure of this film is such that the audience cinema has put it on his feet.

Qasim Khan said: I naturally do not expect the performance of our film at the box office to be compared with “Fossil” and “Nargil”. Our competitor may be the movie “Motherless”, which again compared to this movie, we had different conditions. The distributors of the movie “Column 14” seem to have spent more time on their other movies and less time on our movie.

The producer of “Column 14” said about how he evaluates the record sales of less than 400 million tomans for this film at the box office: From an economic point of view, this sale is definitely a failure. Definitely, in this situation, a movie must have 7 to 10 billion Tomans at the box office in order to avoid economic failure, but from a cinematic point of view, I do not consider this experience a failure. Before this, I had produced the film “Orange Days” by Arash Lahoti, and that film was also in the conditions coronavirusIt had very low sales in cinemas, but at the same time it had won 23 international awards. These projects have failed from the point of view of financial and economic issues, but from the point of view of performance My producer I don’t consider them failures because I haven’t made bad movies.

Before this, I had produced the film “Orange Days” by Arash Lahoti, which was also in the conditions coronavirusIt had very low sales in cinemas, but at the same time it had won 23 international awards. These projects have failed from the point of view of financial and economic issues, but from the point of view of performance My producer I do not consider them failures

Referring to another film of his as a producer called “Atmospheric Station” directed by Mehdi Jafari, he continued: “That film was also very neglected in the screening, but it was seen very well on the platforms.” We hope that “Column 14” will be seen better on platforms. In general, the general conditions of Iranian cinema are not such that we constantly seek success in it. How much do I have to pay for a movie if I want to pay my actor as much as the salary of one of the actors of successful movies?!

Referring to the cost of 4 billion tomans for the production of “Column 14”, Qasim Khan said: I could not go to an actor whose salary might be as much as the entire cost of my film, even though I knew that my director has the necessary talent to tell such a story and if the circumstances were different I had, definitely from the same director My narration I was using

Aghazadegi does not apply to Amir Hossein Hemmati

This producer said about the relationship between Amirhossein Hemmati, the young director of the movie “Column 14” and one of the contemporary political figures, and the influence of this gentleman on the director’s entry into the professional field of cinema: the fact is that these topics are usually attractive to marginalists, but in my opinion, Someone who is a movie critic must examine and evaluate the final product. If you have seen the film, you have seen traces of this young filmmaker’s directing talent in it. Amirhossein Hemmati is educated in cinema and architecture and has acting experience in other countries and even studied acting in Italy. From this point of view, the discussion of nobility, in the negative sense that is customary in our country, does not apply to him at all. During this period, I only saw Mr. Hemti’s father closely once, and even when I jokingly said that you, who were in charge of the Central Bank, should help your son’s film be made, he said very seriously that he should stand on his own feet.

Amir Hossein Hammati, the son of Abdul Naser Hammati, is directing “Column 14”

Qasim Khan emphasized: When we released the movie “Column 14”, Mr. Hemti’s father was no longer the head of the Central Bank, and due to the establishment of the new government, we did not even dare to talk about this assignment in many places! (Laughs) It means that not only was there no direct support, but we also had to hide the relationships. In general, Mr. Hemti did not support his son’s film so much and only mentioned to me that he studied directing and wanted to make his first film. I used to work with Mr. Hemti Sr. on TV. In the 1960s, he was the political deputy of the Broadcasting Organization, and I was a reporter for the cultural service of the TV. When he said that his son wants to make a film, I also said that you should also help to make this happen. In response, he said, “Don’t expect me to call anyone to get my son’s work started, or to arrange special money for you.” Everything is its capital and power.

He emphasized: Personally, I do not consider any of these factors to be effective and important, and I believe that it is important to see what kind of film is made. 2 years ago, I saw a movie that was made with only 300 million Tomans, while apparently the film cost at least 2 billion Tomans! The important thing is the film itself and the quality of the film. We should address all marginal issues such as whether a director is a gentleman or not, to the question of whether his film has cinematic value or not. We have gone through all the legal steps of making a film, without taking orders from anywhere. We did not want to say that we have woven separate taffeta.

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