Once Upon a Time, Cinema
(Nasseredin Shah, Actor-e Cinema)
by Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Iran
Script: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Cinematographer: Nemat Haghighi, Faraj Heidari
Editing: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Music: Majid Entezami
Cast: Ezzatollah Entezami, Mehdi Hashemi, M.A. Keshavarz, Akbar Adi, Dariush Arjomand, Fatemeh Motamed-Aria
Production: Masud Jafari Josani, Mohammad Mehdi Dagdu
Contact:
Farabi Cinema Foundation
International Affairs
19 Delbar Alley, Tous St, Vali Asr Ave.
Tehran 1961744611, Iran
Tel: +9821.2273.4939
Fax: +9821.2273.4953
Mail: [email protected] / [email protected]
www.fcf.ir
Year: 1992
35 mm, B & W, 98 min,
OV Farsi with English Subtitles
French Electronic Subtitles
Unreleased
Nasseredin, Shah of Iran, has 84 wives and 200 children. He hates cinema until he discovers " Lor’s Daughter ", the first Iranian talkie. He madly falls in love with Golnar, the heroine of the film. His passion is so strong that he is ready to renounce his kingdom and his harem. He becomes an actor for his beloved. Mohsen Makhmalbaf uses stock-shots from the main landmark films of Iranian cinema and, with imaginativeness, inserts them into an his torical re-creation of Shah Nasseredin’s reign.
"As it is depicted in this film, cinema before the revolution can be divided in two categories: on one hand the ‘Farsi’ films and on the other hand ‘different’ films. The different films (motafavet) were inspired by Italian neorealism and French New Wave. The uniqueness of our cinema before the revolution was to only have these two trends." Mohsen Makhmalbaf
