This is the first online class group of the students that are participating from Iran. They have created a short film together. Cinema takes us to places we don’t expect!
Learn together, work together
-ARK GATE FILMS
ARK GATE FILMS is excited to announce that our feature film, “You Won’t See Winter”, directed by Abdolreza Kahani, is done filming.
The plot of the film is set in the North of Iran and the film is a product of Iran, Canada, and France. This is the second film of Kahani in 2020 that has been filmed in Canada. The first film is titled “ISTHMUS”, which features an all Canadian cast and story, and a screenplay that is in English. “You Won’t See Winter”, however, is a return to Iranian stories and the Farsi language. When both films are completed, they will be distributed by an international distributor in 2021.
The Executive Producers of “SAY’ are Patrick Gimenez, Ali Aryana, and Dorsay Shafie. The actors of the film have been selected from the Iranian-Canadian community and include Ali Aryana, Ghazal Partou, Sadaf Shakori, Nazanin Rasekhi, and Aryan Abasniya. The Cameraman is Moein Motalebi, who has previously worked with Abdolreza Kahani in Iran. Shima Monfared, the Editor of the film who has always worked alongside Abdolreza in his projects, is in the process of editing the film. David Moffat is the Sound Engineer. The Assistants include Kayvan Fard, Dorin Saadat, and Armand Gangi. The Assistant Producers are Elnaz Zarsazan and Roham Maher. Natalia Pozo is the Special Effects Makeup Artist. Last but not least, Armin Pasha is the Set Designer.
The postproduction of “SAY” is being completed in Toronto and Paris. We look forward to showing you our completed project and we thank you for your support.
Iran has taken its cultural censorship efforts to new levels by pressuring a filmmaker to cancel the screening of one of his films in Canada.
The film, Delighted, by Abdolreza Kahani, was due to be screened last month at an independent theatre in Toronto.
But Kahani decided to cancel the screening after receiving a warning from Iran’s Culture Ministry.
A source close to Kahani’s production team who did not want to be named told RFE/RL that the ministry “advised” the filmmaker that if he would go ahead with the screening his other film, We Love You Mrs. Yaya, which was filmed in Thailand, would not be allowed to be shown inside Iran.
“When we announced that the film would be screened [in Canada] and tickets were sold, we received a message requesting the screening be cancelled; the message said that, if not, Kahani’s [other] film – [which was] was made in Thailand and was costly — will not receive a screening permit,” the source said.
The source added that authorities had also contacted producers, including those involved in the production of We, Love You Mrs. Yaya, to convince him to cancel the November 24 screening in Toronto.
Kahani has said in an interview with Radio Canada that Delighted is the story of three women who want to have a good time in Iran and are trying to meet wealthy men in order to achieve that goal.
A Culture Ministry official was quoted in 2016 as saying that Delighted was “immoral.”
Last year, a member of a committee that issues screening permits said that Delighted was problematic “from the beginning till the end.” He didn’t provide details but said the film was “not amendable.”
Film critic Khosro Dehghan says the Culture Ministry’s move to block the showing of Delighted in Canada was unprecedented.
“The Culture Ministry is not likely to confirm this issue as it would prove that the ministry won’t limit itself to the country’s borders — any film that is banned here will not be allowed to be screened anywhere else in the world,” Dehghan said in an interview with the daily Jamee Farda.
“The ministry has now extended its reach beyond Iran’s borders,” Dehghan added.
Banned At Home, Lauded Abroad
Authorities routinely ban award-winning Iranian movies from cinemas inside the country.
But until now there hadn’t been any known efforts to prevent the screening of controversial movies outside the country.
Dissident film director Jafar Panahi — who received a six-year prison sentence and a 20-year ban on directing movies in 2010 — screened his latest film Taxi, made clandestinely, at the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival where it received the Golden Bear Prize.
Panahi told Jamee Farda that Iran should not interfere in the screening of films in other countries.
“Domestic rules should not be enforced when it comes to screening movies in other countries,” he said.