Mohammad Rasoulaf
Appearances
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
You are listening to Today Explained. I'm Mohamed Raslof. You can tell me Mohamed.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Well, of course, the power structure in Iran, the Islamic Republic, is a despotic and repressive regime. And it has... implemented widespread censorship on all parts of the society. It does not allow any voices that are critical of it to be heard. Voices like myself who make critical movies.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And so this is why the film had to be made in secret because we are trying to get our voices out and they're not allowing the voices to be heard.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Yes, of course, at first we had limited equipment and we had to be inside and have interior shots. But gradually we learned how to be seen and how to have... the exterior shots. It's like wearing clothes. You try to protect yourself that way. The underground cinema in Iran tries not to be seen and tries to have films that are not impacted in their quality by the fact that they are underground.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
As you said yourself, this is a story of a family who live together, whose members live together. but they think very differently from one another.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
is very old and it's not only contained to the women life freedom movement. Of course, the backdrop of this film is the movement of women in Iran, which is very much rooted. But this movement also shows the awareness of the new generation and their way of use of the world as a network these days through social media and through the internet.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
In the year 2022, it was the last time that I was arrested and I had been in prison for When the movement happened, it was a few months into my arrest and I was following the events of the movement in prison.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
For my previous films and for what I had written on social media about social and political events.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
The most important complication was how I was going to direct from a distance. I was constantly watching a monitor when I was afar and the monitor was on set. And I also had two assistants who were present on set. One of them was my liaison with the actors, with the artistic team, and the other was my liaison with with the technical team and I was communicating through sound.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Everything that was happening I could hear and I could tell them what to do through sound. And technically it was a little difficult but we got used to it as we went on and in the end We ended up having a very good and close collaboration. And some of the scenes, actually, it worked better. But the other complication I had was how to keep my focus. I was under a lot of pressure.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
I was really stressed out. And at any moment, anything could have happened. So we were always in a state of in-between hope and hopelessness.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
Well, when I was in jail and I was released, My family was in Germany and I no longer could work in Iran. I no longer could make films. And I decided that I had to leave because otherwise I had to go to jail and play the role of the victim. And I did not want to be a victim of the censorship. So I decided to leave Iran through the mountains through a very, very difficult trip.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And after I got to a neighboring country, I contacted the German consulate and they knew that my family was in Germany. So they helped me travel to Germany. And in addition to that, my post-production all happened in Germany. The editing process and my actors, after they left Iran, they also went to Germany and they started living there. The budget of the film also partly came from Germany.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
But there is also more meaning to this for me. People who chose to nominate this film on behalf of Germany to the Oscars gave a very strong message to the other filmmakers outside. And that is that there is always going to be hope for filmmakers who are working under a lot of pressure.
Today, Explained
The messiest Oscars category
And I also think that the film has a similar fate to my own fate, and that is because I'm an Iranian, I'm traveling with German documents, and so is the film. The film was made in Iran, but it is now traveling around with German identity and documents.