Ray and Bergman biggest inspirations: Bahman Farmanara

“Indian Cinema has witnessed the mastery of prominent filmmaker Satyajit Ray who has produced incredible films with minimum facilities. The enormous film scale of Ray’s films have always been an influential factor, with realistic themes portrayed in relevant contexts”, said Iranian film director Bahman Farmanara in the ‘Meet The Press’ session of the 23^rd IFFK. “Swedish filmmaker Ernst Ingmar Bergman and American filmmaker Oliver Stone have also been major guidance to me in narrating stories of people, their issues related to socio-economic and cultural aspects, in a far more exciting perspective”, told Farmanara, whose film, ‘Tale of the Sea’ is in the International Competition section of the fest.

‘Tale of the Sea’ is a byproduct of the renaissance of art and artists in the past 40 years of Iran. The director emphasized on the approach of filmmaking in the country. “In our films, we don’t tend to touch, kiss, or hold hands with women. It is not how it is in the country, not really depicting the life the way it is in Iran”, he quoted.  The cinematographer of the Kyrgyztani drama ‘Night Accident’ Kabuljan Hamidov who represented the filmmaker Temirbek Birnazarov said that the flick has been made combining three short stories. “Kyrgyztan audience is familiar to Indian films. During the Soviet era, we watched Indian movies of popular heroes like Raj Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty”, added Hamidov.

Painting Life’s director Dr. Bijukumar Damodaran, Kottayam’s director Binu Bhaskar, Ave Maria’s Vipin Radhakrishnan, and filmmaker Balu Kiriyath also participated in the session.