Venice Winner Arsalan Amiri on Censorship in Iran and Busan APM Project ‘For The Girls Of The Tribe’

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is at the Busan International Film Festival‘s Asian Project Market with “For the Girls of the Tribe.” Inspired by a real historical event that took place in 1905 in Iran, the film will tell the story of a group of peasants who rescue two girls among dozens who were kidnapped by rebels.

The girls have information about a betrayal and are taken before the ruler to provide their testimony but he refuses to accept it, as, according to tradition, a woman’s testimony is only half as valuable as a man’s. “For hundreds of years before this event and even decades after, this situation has recurred in different parts of the world: a group of women is oppressed and most of society, the government and even some other women are silent or passive about it due to fear, benefit or convenience,” Amiri told Variety. “Today, as a person raised in Middle Eastern culture, I am caught in such a situation.

History repeats itself and any change is costly. Localizing movie genres, while having a tragicomedy perspective on social issues, has always been my favorite approach to making films.

I prefer stories that happen within a historical context, as it gives them a sense of fantasy. They feel like the tales of our grandmothers, which evoke feelings of nostalgia but never get old.