Ideas, not ideology captured in Iranian cinema

Iranian director Hassan Yektapanah once had a stateless friend, similar to the main character in his movie “Bibi.” For a very long time his friend had to consult state bureaucracy to get a local ID card. After several unsuccessful attempts, the friend moved abroad where he was finally able to obtain legal protection and residence.

Lack of citizenship may not sound like a problem to those who have not encountered it, but to Bibiaziz, an old woman expelled from Iraq with no documentation to prove her Iranian roots, she can neither go back to Iraq and her daughter nor to Iran. Statelessness proves a serious problem in Yektapanah's latest film. 

 “The concept of the film was to show that every individual has a right to citizenship and to an ID card,” said Yektapanah in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. The right to citizenship has never been included in any legally binding international catalog of human rights because only the state has the right to decide whether citizenship is obtained. He added, “Currently Iran has new regulations regarding this problem … At the age of 18 children of stateless parents have a right to obtain Iranian citizenship.”

Shooting but not screening

Only a few main obstacles were faced by the director while shooting the movie, which is currently shown as a part of the “On the Silk Road” program at the Bursa International Silk Road Film Festival, running through Nov. 22. Finding the right actress to play the main character was one of them.

“Salimeh Rangzan is a professional actress, able to speak Persian and Arabic,” Yektapanah said, adding that he had been looking for candidates among more ordinary people and the research was more difficult than expected. “Once I saw the perfect candidate play Bib, I decided to follow her to her house,” Yektapanah said, “But when I offered her the role, her sons objected and beat me up.” According to Yektapanah, the reason for the behavior was because people in Iran still have problems opening up to new ideas.

In “Bibi” professional actors and amateurs from Iran come together, but the film has never been screened in Iran. “It was made for Iranians,” Yektapanah said, “If I knew it would be screened in Iran, I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.” The reasons behind the ban are both political and commercial, as his films do not fit into mainstream cinema. “Even in Iran I’m being called ‘a foreign director’ … I make movies for people to see them. Not being able to show them is my biggest concern.”

Yektapanah admits meeting criticism from the Iranians abroad. “I get to hear that my films see only the bad side of life in Iran … the truth is if I lived in any other country; I would be making movies about problems there as well. What I show are my ideas, not ideology.”

Sometimes the changes come from outside. “While preparing the script, we already know it’s going to be censored,” the director said, “We keep it in mind while writing so later nothing is changed.” According to Yektapanah censorship contributes in a positive way to the final version of the movie. “It happens that sometimes we are told by the censors to cut scenes from the production, but the final version benefits from it in the end,” he said. Yektapanah recalls the popular saying in Iran, which says, if god allows, enemies can become one’s best friends.

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“Bibi” is Hassan Yektapanah’s third film, which has already received an award from the 31st International Moscow Film Festival. His debut film, “Djomeh” received an award from the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and a prestigious Golden Camera award outside the main competition. The second film “Story Undone” was awarded at the film festival in Locarno and received the Amnesty International Award at Rotterdam Film Festival.