The Iranian director spoke about how Hollywood perceives countries like his home of Iran while in an in-depth conversation at the Rio Film Festival RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – Twice Oscar-winning filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, who is at the Rio Film Festival to present “Parallel Tales,” spoke about the perceived hegemony of American cinema and how Hollywood shouldn’t be seen as a source for faithful portrayals of foreign cultures. Asked about “Argo” winning Best Picture just a year after “A Separation” won Best International Film at the Oscars, Farhadi said he watched the film at the time it came out and felt it was a “Hollywood thing.” In the film, director Ben Affleck plays a Latino exfiltration specialist who masquerades as a Hollywood producer to rescue six Americans held captive in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. The moderator mentioned how Affleck’s film portrays Iran “like you’re in hell.” “The problem with these kinds of films in Hollywood [and] some people in the United States [is that] they look at the world from up to down,” he added.
I don’t understand why they have this ego that they’re up.” The Iranian director then said Americans often claim to “have democracy,” but they don’t. It’s a lie.” Farhadi then recalled spending time in the U.S. a few years ago when working on a project and, during research, travelling to San Francisco to speak with incarcerated men. But people in the world don’t see that part of the United States.” “I have this problem when they feel they are up and they think, ‘[others] should be like us,’” he continued.
And in these films it’s always a white guy from the United States saving others. Why does an American go to Cuba or Iran to save people? People understand they can save themselves.
Who asked you to come and save us?” Asked about how he broaches politics in his films, the renowned filmmaker said that, whenever “you talk about society, you are talking about politics.” “Even when you talk about family life, their relationships, their difficulties and problems, indirectly you are talking about politics. In my films, I always try not to talk about politics directly because, to me, that is a bit far from cinema. The cinema that I believe is the kind of cinema that gives space to audiences to discover things about themselves.” The director then brought up Abbas Kiarostami’s “Fellow Citizen” (“Hamshahri”) as Iran’s “most political film.” The 1983 documentary heavily trails drivers across the streets of the Iranian capital.
Cinema is based on hate and love. And [when it comes to] hate and love, everywhere is the same. A love between a mother and child in Brazil, in Tehran, is the same.
The way they express it is different, but the core is the same.” Farhadi said that when he watches a Brazilian film, he soon forgets he is watching a story from another place in the world, and feels it is a “film about us” as people. I don’t believe media can give us the whole image.” On this, the filmmaker emphasized how his last two films, “A Hero” and “Parallel Tales,” are about how we see others and how we are seen in return. They are also heavily influenced by “how social media has shaped our lives.” “When we see something in the media, we should be careful,” he continued, adding that most information replicated by mainstream media about Iran, for example, comes from “very simple knowledge” of real life in the country.
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