Reza Dormishian's second feature I'm Not Angry! has impressed critics, won three awards at Shanghai and received applause from festival audiences in Berlin, Stockholm, Tallinn and now Dubai.
But it remains banned at home in Iran. After screening at Tehran’s Fajr Film Festival in February, in an edited form with 15 of its 110 minutes censored out, the film was promptly put on the backlist.
But speaking after the movie’s screening at Diff, the controversial filmmaker insisted his second feature will be seen by home crowds soon.
“I think my movie is just the victim of a misunderstanding, and I hope this will soon be resolved,” Dormishian told the appreciative audience. “Experience has shown that no film will remain not shown forever. It may be locked up now, but one day it will be unlocked and shown to the public.”
The film's subtitle, A Free Adaptation of Today Iran, has been perceived as an affront to conservatives, while many have detected political undertones in his use of archived speeches.
The director's unofficial biographer on Wikipedia offers the unsubstantiated claim that I'm Not Angry! marks "the most controversial film of the Iranian cinema in 2014".
But Dormishian insists it was not his intention to provoke.
“The image I show is not representative of all people in my country of Iran – just one character. We show this in the hope of finding a solution,” he added.
“Those will say that my films are showing Iran in a dark and black way are not familiar with our beautiful country.”
rgarratt@thenational.ae
