Cinema Verite festival's website
PACKAGE TOUR BEHIND THE VEIL
After Shadow of the Holy Book was made I could never have imagined that within a year the film would be screened to an Iranian audience in Tehran. This took place, however, with the film being screened at Tehran’s Cinema Verite festival. The audience shuffles in and out of the theatre during the screening – this wandering continues from the beginning of the film until the end. Fortunately around a hundred viewers sit unflinchingly while the other half sustains this movement.
The Felestine cinema functioned as the center of Cinema Verite
In the discussion afterwards, a young director-student springs up, praises the film and points towards the image of Iran’s spiritual leader ajatollah Ali Khamenei, lodged in the front corner of the cinema: “Could you also make a film about Iran? You must make your next film about him, our leader. The same kind of film as Shadow of the Holy Book”. To my surprise the audience do not protest against this courageous comment. I refuse politely, but during the following days a couple of other people also repeat the request. Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also suggested as a subject.
The spiritual leader ajatollah Ali Khamenei supervises the festival posters
The works by Western filmmakers screened at the festival raise some interesting debate between local journalists, students and filmmakers. The Iranians are clearly encouraged by some of the stories and examples in the films, and are motivated by through them, which feels great. Encouraging authors to go forward. Receiving feedback from them and their artistic expression – Iranian cinema and aesthetics are, after all, fascinating and original – and at the same time give something back and create belief.
TV-interview at the Cinema Verite festival
Cinema Verite is in its second year, and summons respect in many ways. The international program has a wide range of good quality films. It also includes a good selection of the year’s documentary pearls from different genres and perspectives. There is a comprehensive overview of Polish documentary cinema, new Finnish documentary films, and tributes to the English Cinema Verite pioneer, Robert Leacock, Canadian Peter Wintonick and the Danish Jorgen Leth. The most surprising thing, however, is that amongst the international films, many sensitive subjects are touched upon, such as in our film, which one would not expect to be screened in Iran, a country known for its constraints. The festival organisers have most likely acted as masters of balance in this matter: they dare to be courageous and open, but at the same time remember to respect their own Islamic traditions and roots. Indeed, the festival draws substantial attention to the 30th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution. The ceremonies are also in accord with the Islamic books, their national hymns and courtesies. The massive program has been crammed onto just 5 cinema screens over 6 days. There doesn’t appear to be any shortage of people, and the journalists are swarming around the festival guests, which is great, but for such a large amount of films there ought to be more screening days.
Peter Wintonick and one of the festival posters
Iikka Vehkalahti at the awards ceremony
Thanks to the program's Finnish series, the Finnish Documentary Guild's yearly festival trip was also in Persia. It’s a good, exotic choice. The jury for the international competition also includes a Finnish presence in the form of the Documentary Project producer Iikka Vehkalahti. I arrive in Tehran on the same flight with the Finnish group, and we are accommodated in the same hotel. The organisers take us around, according to the daily schedule, into the cinema, to the daily tourist attraction, to lunch and to dinner. We blend in with the larger group of international guests; minibuses in the wild Tehran traffic taking the group of international guests around. It’s quite nice for a while, but of course also a bit numbing. Sometimes while moving around in a big group it feels like being on a package tour in Tenerife.
The Documentary Guild tour leader Leena Kilpeläinen
testing Iranian flexibility with her scarf
The effective guides for the festival guests
Inka Achte taking a picture at the mosque
Carpet salesmen in Teheran
I was in Tehran two years earlier at the “educational” ROSHD (=development) festival as a member of the jury. The bureaucratic, “state-controlled” and closed-off nature of the festival was something wholly different to the Cinema Verite event. It's great to see that thanks to courageous people, even in problematic and reactionary places some glimmers of light and hope can exist. Communication, meeting people, and exchanging views can move things forward. Perhaps not immediately, but at least a slow crawl in the right direction. Because Western people are not living “behind the veil” in Iran’s reality, it’s likely to be difficult for many to understand the kind of brave, high-quality, cultural-societal achievement the Cinema Verite festival represents.
Camerawoman at the festival closing ceremony
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