Iran bans Half Moon as it premieres at Toronto fest
Web posted at: 9/10/2006 2:26:50
Source ::: AFP
TORONTO � Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi learned this week as his film "Half Moon" premiered at the Toronto film festival that Iranian authorities had banned its release back home, he said late Friday.
"Two days ago, they banned my film and ruined my career," he said in an interview in Toronto. "(The minister of culture) told me:
'Don't think about this film, think about your next project.'"
The film ("Niwemang" in Farsi) follows an iconic, but aging Kurdish musician Mamo (Ismail Ghaffari) in poor health who leads his sons and a woman with a "celestial voice" from Iran to Iraq for a concert to celebrate the fall of Saddam Hussein and the end of his censorship of Kurdish music.
The film is based on true events, but is "not political", Ghobadi insists.
However, it apparently flouts Iranian law, which forbids Kurds and women in mixed company from singing in public since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979.
The drama, filmed in Iran and Iraq, gives a voice to both Iranian Kurds and women by showing scenes of Kurdish women singing, accompanied by a musical ensemble.
"If I had known that my film was going to be banned I would have put in more music, I would have used more instruments," Ghobadi said.
The film also touches on the delicate subject of a proposed Kurdish state that would pan Iran, Iraq and Turkey-which national governments in all three countries oppose.
"I never wanted to get in a situation like this," Ghobadi said. "But this time I want to defend my film. For a long time as filmmakers and artists, we censored ourselves."
"None of my films are political ... But, living in Iran is political."
The movie is Ghobadi's fourth feature film after his Cannes prize-winning "A Time for Drunken Horses" (2000), "Marooned in Iraq" (2002) and "Turtles Can Fly" (2004).
Other Iranian films shown at the Toronto film festival include Niki Karimi's "A Few Days Later," Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Mohsen Abdolvahab's "Mainline," "Offside" by Jafar Panahi, and the Canadian-Iranian co-production "Mercy" by Mazdak Taebi.
I think Ghobadi was a bit too optimistic about his so-called "homeland Iran".
Interesting info...
Sometimes you need to bribe the institution for cinema and music aswell... 
