Cannes 2023

Cannes 2023: "Terrestrial Verses", an Iran of resistance and the "ear" of Ali Asgar and Alireza Khatami

Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami, the Iranian directors of "Terrestrial Verses", at the Cannes Film Festival. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

6 min

Moving words and the promise of a new form of cinema accompanied the world premiere of "Terrestrial Verses" by Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami at the Cannes Film Festival. Presented in the official selection, their film depicts a dozen absurd situations through a dozen people trying to resist and not accept an abuse of power that has visibly become normal in today's Iran. Maintenance.

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RFI: Since last September, since the beginning of the "Woman - Life - Freedom" movement in Iran, we have heard a lot about the persecution, oppression and censorship of Iranian filmmakers. Are you surprised to have been able to present Terrestrial Verses at the Cannes Film Festival?

Alireza Khatami: Are we surprised?

Ali Asgari: No, we are more excited than surprised. We are really excited to be here.

Alireza Khatami: Yes, we are delighted to be here. They do what they do. We do what we do. We are filmmakers. We make films. And we try to show them to the audience that we will find.

At the world premiere of the film, you explained that there has always been resistance in Iran, but that there is a new public awareness of the situation. And that this new situation requires "a new form of cinema". Why is Terrestrial Verses a new way of making movies?

Alireza Khatami: If you look at what we are used to in Iranian cinema, it is mainly realistic and social cinema with a rather dark atmosphere. I think it's no longer effective in telling what is happening. We wanted to invite people not to look at these social issues, but to look at their roots. We wanted to invite people to think on a more philosophical level. To do this, we needed a cinema free of "my medium plane", "your big plan", "my medium shot", "your big plan"... We had to remove all those ornaments. We want to bring cinema back to the naked bone and see what this naked bone medium is able to do.

One of the scenes filmed exclusively in still shot of "Terrestrial Verses", directed by Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

You also said that you don't want to be the voice of the movement, because the movement already has voices, but that you want to be an "ear." Is that why the faces of the culprits always remain off-camera? They are never in front of the camera, because you want to be an "ear"?

Alireza Khatami: It's a very nice performance, but we had many reasons not wanting to film the other side. We wanted to show individuals and celebrate people who resist and are in constant negotiation with power. All it took was one voice on the other side to create this feeling of a "Big Brother" trying to manage down to the smallest detail the most basic things in the lives of its citizens.

You show in the film the abuse of power at all levels of society: a father is prevented from registering the chosen name of his new baby, another is blackmailed when he wants to get his driver's license, a young woman is harassed during a job interview, there is the veil imposed for the school ceremony, The absurdity of a filming authorization that turns to censorship... It's a bit like Kafka in Tehran. Everyone must feel guilty without knowing why. And no one really has rights. A student manages to resist the pressure, because she has compromising images against the principal of the school. For you, images are the key to freedom?

Ali Asgari: The two girls, the student and the little girl dancing in the clothing store, use images. The new generation is fighting harder than previous generations. For this we put the new generation at the beginning of the film and then, step by step, the other generations appear.

One of the scenes filmed exclusively in still shot of "Terrestrial Verses", directed by Iranian directors Ali Asgari and Alireza Khatami. © Siegfried Forster / RFI

But the student was only able to resist, because she had compromising images against the school principal on her phone.

Alireza Khatami: 20 years ago, everyone said: image is power. But today, with deep fake and new technologies, image is no longer power. Power is in consciousness. Power is a generation that is no longer afraid. My generation grew up with the war. 8 years of war. It created a sense of fear inside of us. The new generation has never seen this war. The new generation has different demands. Their parents are my generation. And we were different parents. We tried not to transmit fear to them. Today, it is a courageous and fearless generation. And she is aware of the cost she has to pay. And they are willing to pay for it. The real power lies in their courage.

In the film, a man expresses his values in the form of a tattooed poem. Armadillos visible on his arms, chest, back... A consciousness forever inscribed on his body. Here in Cannes, the actresses in your film did not wear the veil. Do you feel that the new generation has passed the point of no return?

Alireza Khatami: We defend the idea that people have the right to wear what they want. In the film, we show both sides of this argument. We are not here to tell people what to wear or not. I don't even want to talk about what my actresses wore today in Cannes. It is their choice, their conscience. We don't really discuss it. We believe that everyone has the right to choose. It is this right to freedom that motivated us to make this film.

What is for you the most important point of this film?

Ali Asgari: For us, it was very important to talk about this topic in a different way and in a different form. We wanted to make a different film from other Iranian films you've seen. That's why we chose this form. And that's also why we chose humor in the film. We didn't want to be sad like other movies, we just wanted the characters to be active. We didn't want passive characters. It was something very important to us. For us, it is very important that everyone has control over their own body.

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