 “Niets is echt maar alles is waar.” Dit is de premisse van de film Dance Iranian Style.
Wat een mooie docu-speelfilm is Dance Iranian Style! Gisteren ben ik samen met Nafiss Nia, schrijver en producent van de film, naar de bioscoop LUX in Nijmegen gegaan om daar de film te zien. Het was de eerste keer dat ik de film zag en mijn eerste gedachte was: “De aftiteling is niet lang genoeg om van de film bij te komen.” Ik denk dat de anderen in het publiek dat ook dachten maar één vrouw uit het publiek wist gelijk al wat zij van de film vond. Na afloop kwam ze op ons af en vertelde dat zij het zo fijn vond dat de film zo eerlijk is in zijn vertelling. Het ziet er documentair uit maar tegelijkertijd wordt de kijker ook duidelijk gemaakt dat sommige scènes niet echt zijn. Precies deze dubbele vertelling deed haar beseffen dat de film misschien niet helemaal echt is maar dat de gebeurtenissen in de film wel waar zijn. Daarop antwoorde Nafiss: “Niets is echt maar alles is waar.” “Ja absoluut!” Zei de vrouw. Bij mij viel het kwartje. Nu moet ik er bij zeggen dat ik al veel voorkennis van de film had voor ik deze ging zien. Ik wist waar de film over ging, ik heb enorm veel stills en foto’s van de film gezien en ik heb de premisse veel gebruikt voor de promotie van de film. Maar nu snapte ik precies waar het over ging en waarom juist deze zin zo bij de film past. Het is zó waar wat in de film gebeurt en het is ongelofelijk dat ik misschien dagelijks illegale mensen zie en daar geen idee van heb. Ik merkte bij mezelf een enorme drive om iets te gaan doen en ik had enorm veel vragen voor Nafiss over het schrijven en maken van de film. Ik was niet de enige. Tussen het publiek zaten ook een aantal kennissen en vrienden van Nafiss en die wilden graag een drankje met ons drinken en over de film na praten. Er werden een aantal goede vragen gesteld. Iedereen wilde weten wat in scene was gezet en wat niet. Om eerlijk te zijn hebben wij daar niet echt antwoord op gekregen. De hoofdrol, Roya, wordt wel door een actrice vertolkt maar bijna alle scènes zijn op straat gefilmd. Daardoor waren de makers overgeleverd aan de regels van het maken van een documentaire: Roya reageerde tijdens het zwerven op haar omgeving en de omgeving op haar. Mensen die haar eten hebben geweigerd, hebben dat echt gedaan, mensen die midden op straat van haar dans genoten, besloten écht even te stoppen en te kijken. Ze hadden geen idee dat er van een afstandje werd gefilmd. Kun je dan wel zeggen dat het in scene is gezet? Maakt het wel uit dat het in scene is gezet? Iedereen was het er over eens: Nee. Het maakt niet uit. Het verhaal is waar en daar draait het om. Daar voeg ik aan toe: Juist de dubbele vertelling doet je beseffen dat het niet draait om de vraag of iets echt is of niet. Het gaat er om dat dit echt gebeurt en dat er mensen zijn die ooit een opleiding hebben gevolgd en werk hadden maar door het noodlot als uitgeprocedeerde vluchteling tussen de menigte van onze steden lopen. Ze zien er verzorgd uit, vragen beleefd om restjes van eten en slapen graag op plekken waar het veilig is. Hun verleden en hun identiteit hebben ze grotendeels achter zich moeten laten. In Dance Iranian Style worden al deze dingen voelbaar en zichtbaar. Het schrijnende verhaal van Roya is namelijk prachtig verfilmd. Terwijl ze door mijn allerliefste stad Amsterdam rond zwerft, zie ik als kijker hoe mooi de stad is: De lichten langs de grachten, de weerspiegeling in het water, de pittoresk scheve panden en de gezelligheid van de verschillende pleinen vormen het toneel. Dit wordt afgewisseld met documentaire beelden die er iets rauwer maar ook ietwat nostalgisch er uit zien. Maar nooit is het beeld lelijk en dat terwijl het verhaal en de waarheid die er achter ligt natuurlijk heel pijnlijk is. De wisselwerking tussen deze twee gegevens zorgden er voor dat ik voorbij mijn eigen schuld en schaamtegevoelens kon kijken en met Roya mee kon leven. Het ging er niet om dat ik bevoorrecht ben en dat ik mij dit moest beseffen. Nee. Het ging om haar en wat zij meemaakte. Haar geluid, haar stem, haar gevoelens en verlangens stonden centraal. In het nagesprek met Nafiss en het groepje kennissen en vrienden kon daardoor een heel ander gesprek over vluchtelingen en uitgeprocedeerde mensen plaats vinden. De vluchteling kreeg een stem en er kon gelachen en gespot worden. Wat een verademing! Ik hoop dat de film de anderen in het publiek ook zo’n gezellige en diepgaande avond hebben gebracht. A.s. vrijdag draait de film in Leiden en ik ga er zeker heen! Er is dan namelijk een Q&A. De uitgelezen kans voor mensen die de makers niet kennen om een zelfde soort avond te beleven. Komt mensen, het is zo fantastisch, ik wens het iedereen toe! P.S. Regisseur Farshad Aria, jij bent er vrijdag ook bij en ik heb nog een paar vragen aan jou!
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 Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck! My journey to the Cannes and this blog comes now to an end. Thanks everybody for following and supporting me. Hope you enjoyed reading my blog and till next time. Love, Nafiss  Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck!  It's time to say goodbye to the Festival the Cannes and Marché du Film. It was a wonderful journey; very educational, fruitful and fascinating. There are of course some people who come here, never leave their office or just go to the parties. The considerate it as a fun happening, specially when the boss pays the bills. But there are so much occasions and opportunities to learn from. These days were like a intensive study for me. I have learnd a lot. About film making, presenting films, and how to get to know the world by its filmmakers. It cost a bit to go to such a festival but I can tell you it worth every penny. So as soon as I get home, I begin saving for the next year like I did last year. This year there were great Iranian filmmakers at the festival such as Asghar Farhadi and the talented actress Golshifteh Farahani. I didn't get a chance to meet Farhadi, my classmate from long time ago when I began filmmaking at the Society of Young Cineasts in Isfahan, because he arrived on the day that I left. But I could see Golshifteh twice. She played in the new film of Jim Jarmusch 'Paterson'. She was marvelous and did a great job. Tomorrow I will put all my pictures in my last blog on Cannes. Here some pictures of Golshifteh Farahani.  Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck! While learning about the business of producing, I'll get to know the different ways of handeling the business as well, also how everybody generally or individually operates. It is so fascinating to watch people in a big room while everybody is busy with selling their stories. I make a personal observation about the people I met or talk to the last days. Please be open and feel free to comment on that.  My favorite people were the Scandinavian and the ones from India. They are really modest, kind, deep and they seem very genuine. When you talk to one you immediately know he knows what he is doing. My most fascinating conversations in Cannes were with the nice inhabitants of Scandinavia or India. During the last view days and also my visit on Cannes last year, I noticed that mostly the filmmakers from West European countries, Australia, Canada and far Asia are generally hidden egos. They seem modest, but they think they are the most talented people on the earth and they have every right to be where ever they are and do what ever they want. On the other hand there are the Americans, Russians, Africans, Arabs and Iranians. They are open egos. They are loud and brag about every small videoclip that they ever made and present themselves like they own the universe. The South Americans, East Europeans and people from New Zealand are in between. They are modest when it suits them and brag when it comes handy. As far as myself goes, I think I'm also in between. But more like I've got two personalities; when my Iranian background comes alive I can be loud too, but when my Dutch character appears I am more of a hidden ego. What do you think?  Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck!  Everyday at Cannes film festival is a real treat, meeting people, knowing about new beautiful film projects, learning about new ways, new chances and new opportunities and of course learning about each other's struggle and hearing about the solutions. But today was a very special day, very dear day to me. I attended to a whole day seminar with five different panels regarding the films about and from refugees with the title: "Refugee voices in film". The day was mainly organized by UNHCR, LEFTA & Marché du Film. I saw many initiatives, many titles coming by and many people who are telling the stories of refugees through cinema! It was amazing, wonderful, most of the times very heartbreaking, but even sometimes funny. Dance Iranian Style would be totally fit between these films, but being still not very known in the Dutch film scene and being totally unknown in the France film scene, made our participation impossible. But I tried my best to introduce our film to the different members of the panel. I hope it will be fruitful for us. Aside being among these wonderful people who work passionately to give the refugees a voice, the whole day was very educational and very fascinating. I hope we could have such a positive and instructive seminars in the Netherlands. The message all of the guests (being refugee themselves or very active involved with refugees) was: the humanity must stay with humanity. The problem of refugees is not their problem, but it is a global problem. We all should contribute to solve this problem with humanity and compassion.
 Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck! This is how our breakfast table looks like every day we arrive at the breakfast meetings of Producers Network.  Being part of Producers Network makes me realize how many people same like me trying hard to persuade their dream in de film world. What I see is just a small group. There are more! Much more than we can imagine. And that's just in the film world. If we count all the people from all kind of art disciplines, we can easily say that there are millions. It makes me happy and scared at the same time. Happy to see so much passion for the filmmaking. And scared because it makes me a very very small part of this huge industry. The industry that can make or brake you in one second.   Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck!  Today I stayed longer in bed. I had to. My body was totally exhausted. Sometimes two hour extra sleep can provide energy for two days. Therefore I had to miss my daily breakfast meeting at the producers network, but I already had checked and the sessions were not very interesting and not much useful to me. So my conscious could easily be at rest. I made it at about 10:30 in the center and because I had enough time till my first meeting I treated myself to a simple but o, very delicious breakfast at a spot I had found during my last visit on May 2015. Everything was great. The sun shined, people were chatting and laughing around me. The only thing I mist very much at that moment, was my darling Leonard. The most beautiful part of enjoying a moment is sharing that with him, talk about it, laugh at it and experience it. While I was waiting for my breakfast I read an article about the big money that some publishers earn from some books. The same goes for the distributors who earn from the films. A couple of evenings ago I was invited to a party at the office/house of a French distributor. It was a huge villa with a beautiful garden, inviting pool and mirrored ceiling. I was then wondering if the filmmakers whom this distributor is representing have also a villa like that. I never understood this unfair fact why many artists suffer poverty while their agents, publishers, distributors getting richer on the back of these artists. Why is the business of selling so rewarding? And why people with sometimes a high creativity let others use them so openly. Do we, artists, have to learn the art of selling? Or is better to learn not to let others use us so badly? And the most important question that i ask myself many times: Can we, artists, become successful salesmen and remain great artists?
 Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck!  If I could I would reinvent the networking. I would make sure everybody talks at least with one person whom he didn't know at all. This is just one of the changes among a longs list of them. Yesterday I did an experiment. I was alone at the Producers Network Happy Hour and I promised myself not to use my cellphone at all. Because it's so tempting and also natural to grab your phone when you are all alone at a party. What we actually did do those days when there was no cellphones. Back to my experience. I began to count people who made themselves busy with their smart phones or their camera to avoid letting others know that they are alone. The happiness and relief is enormous when they suddenly see a friend or colleague. Networking is a hell when you don't know anybody. All these happy, chatting social people suddenly transform to lonely sad individuals when they don't have anybody at a gathering or party. I decided to put my first rules of networking in action. I turned to a young lady who sat alone, busy with her phone and ask her if she wants a drink, since I was going to have one. She said yes although her glass was half full. She had a friendly nice smile. I brought our drinks and that was the beginning of a good conversation and who knows maybe even a friendship. I am so glad that I made an effort. Because now I know a very interesting and talented person. That's a present from life!  Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck! The first two cold days here in Cannes surprised all the guests. Everybody was shivering in their summer clothes or buying jackets from the local shops. Today the sun has made everyone happy with her entrance. You immediately see the changes. Happiness is spreading around and people smile automatically more. Being at a festival like Cannes, participating in workshops and meetings, attending cocktails. It is al about connection and the connection make the impossible possible. I am a woman with a opinion, but I am not good at making the first step towards people. If someone comes to me, I'm welcoming them with open arms. But it's been always difficult for me to make the first step and that is what I'm working on it. Today it was a fun day, exhausting but fun! There was first the breakfast meeting with the head of distributor company Cats&Docs. Really a wonderful lady with a lot of fire in her eyes. You could see she is passionate about her work.  After that a very long afternoon hearing many many informations about funding in different European countries. So much information, So much rules and so much ways. I felt like a rookie. Omg! I have so much to learn. Film-making is a never ending school, the more you learn the more you have to learn again. I closed the day with a nice party at the Dutch Pavilion with nice friends, nice wine and funny lightly conversation. It feels great being among friends. The one in particular is Aydin. He is much younger than me, but sometimes I feel he is a older brother, taking care of me, pushing me not to be shy, make sure I'm eating properly. Thanks darling. You are awesome!
 Hi folks, I am at Cannes Film Festival to be part of the Producers Network. To learn, make new contacts, pitch my new projects to the potential investors and find us co-producers. Wish me luck! This morning was getting up the hardest thing to do. Not because I was sleepy (to be honest that too), but specially because my feet were painful after yesterdays kilometers walking. I did manage to get up after a long serious conversion with myself and walked again. Before I knew the pain was gone, or I didn't feel it any more. This time I was on time for the daily breakfast meeting and I succeeded to sit at the table I wanted to sit at: Co-producing with ARTE France. I think our guest of honor (one of the managers of ARTE) was more sleepy than I was this morning. He looked not happy at all. It’s kind of hard to be at that table so early in the morning, talking to a bunch of eager hungry over-enthusiastic and hopeful ambitious producers from all over the world. I didn't want to be in his place. After a coffee and many glasses of water, he looked finally a little bit relaxed and gave us the feeling we can ask questions. And o, we did! The meeting was after all helpful and informative but made me realize I still have a long way to go. I suddenly heard myself saying: when all this began? When did we stop creating films and began to make films to sell? When did we betrayed art by value it by money? Are we still worthy of art?  My next meeting was wonderful, I met a wonder lady from one of the Scandinavian countries. A lady who create opportunities for people, opens doors, invests in young talents and is extremely successful in all of that. Somebody I can learn from anytime from now on. Because she liked me (she said so with big smile) and we shook hands sincerely and are going to work with each other. I will tell you about her later again. The rest of my meetings were joyful, fruitful and good. I didn't stay for the cocktails and parties and went home. Happy and grateful! I am grateful to everybody who stands behind me, beside me and in front me. You are all marvelous people. Love you! ( I really am not drunk and this is the whole truth!) |
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