TIFF 2023: 'Achilles' filmmaker on the dire 'struggle' to make films about Iranian society
"We're just asking ourselves, so if they ban it, who's going to watch it? We want to show it to our own people," Farhad Delaram said
For filmmaker Farhad Delaram, who premiered his film Achilles at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), making movies that reflect his view of Iranian society comes at the risk of safety and censorship.
"From the first moment, ... when I want to write, from the first page I said, 'OK, it's going to be banned," Delaram told Yahoo Canada. "We're not going to have censorship, in the last years we just have banned films."
"I can see people who are suffering. I'm suffering too, but I think my pain is nothing. ... I talked with many mothers that lost their kids in the last 14 years. I talked with them just because of one character, I had it in my film, the nurse character. And when you talk with them, my pain is nothing. Who cares about censorship, who cares about banned films, but simultaneously we're just asking ourselves, so if they ban it, who's going to watch it? We want to show it to our own people. So this is the struggle that everyday we have."
While Delaram added that he does not believe he's going to be able to make another film in Iran, he says he still has "hope" and will continue to write.
'If I can't affect my own society, why am I making films?'
In the film Achilles, Delaram follows the character Farid (nicknamed Achilles), played by Mirsaeed Molavian. He used to be a filmmaker but now he works at nights as a orthotist at a hospital in Tehran. It's there that he meets a nursing colleague who lost her son and had to wait 26 days until authorities permitted his body to be claimed. It's under these circumstances that Farid is feeling particularly uninspired, angry and unmotivated to make films in Iran's political system.
One night, Farid is sent to the hospital's psychiatric ward where he meets Hedieh (Behdokht Valian), who has been institutionalized for years as a political prisoner. Shortly after meeting her, Farid helps Hedieh escape.
The premise of this film is connected to Delaram's personal experience. The filmmaker worked night shifts at a hospital when he was a masters student and, as he recalled, he had an unexpected interaction with a hospital patient.
"She was a prisoner and she was very afraid," he said, explaining that she was among a group of women brought to the hospital from a prison in Tehran.
"This encounter, it was very special for me, so from that moment it just [stuck] in my mind."
Following the success of his film 2019 Tattoo, among other short films, the filmmaker said he was "pushed" to stop filmmaking when he returned to Iran, but there were other factors that contributed to that decision.
"Actually, I stopped filmmaking not because of the government, but I was feeling [that] if I can't affect my own society, why am I making films? Why am I doing art?" he said.
Delaram explained that months later there were particularly huge protests in Iran and he was compelled to start writing a new story.
"I said, this time I want to ... write something that just gives people some hope," he said.
"Most artists in Iran, always they were one step behind the people. People, they were fighting, they were protesting, but most artists, they didn't care about it. But all of these things [came] together and I started to write this film."
Much of Achilles is focused on the characters Farid and Hedieh, with many scenes involving just the two of them. In terms of achieving those very intimate moments on screen, Delaram explained that he rehearses with his actors, but he tries to only get 60 per cent or 70 per cent of their full capacity at that point in the process.
"I want very fresh, pure performances in the scene for myself, as a first audience," he said.
Delaram is also a filmmaker that is adamant about shooting in real locations, whenever possible, highlighting that most of the time when he can't it's due to issues with local authorities in Iran.
"I was very obsessed [with] shooting in real locations because I wrote it based on that," he said, adding that the only location that was manufactured was the hospital.
Delaram also highlighted that in the film they go to a village, which is actually where his parents are from and the house used is the filmmaker's grandmother's house, as part of the 3,000 kilometres travelled to shoot this movie.
For anyone who watches Achilles, Delaram hopes the audience feels like they can really spark change in society.
"It's a big thing because most of the time we are hoping, as a filmmakers, [to make a] big effect on people, but they are looking at it [differently]. But this is my hope," Delaram said.
