"Treasure In The Ruins" projection in Milan

Proiezione "Treasure In The Ruins" a Milano

Mercoledi 9 Novembre alle ore 20:30

Proiezione "Treasure In The Ruins"

Presso' L'Associazione ChiamaMilano,

Largo Corsia dei Servi 11

vicino (Corso V.Emanuele 28) Zona San Babila

Titolo del film: “Treasure In The Ruins” o “Tesori Nelle Rovine”

Scritto e diretto da: Mohammad Amin Wahidi

Location: Kabul (Afghanistan)

Durata: 27 minuti

Produzione: Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan e Razi Film House

Anno: 2007

Lingua: Dari (Persiano)

Sottotitoli: Inglese

RIASSUNTO

Homa è una ragazzina che vive nei sobborghi di Kabul con il fratello e la madre malata. Di giorno va a scuola e di notte tesse tappeti. Ogni sera sua mamma le racconta una storia.

Ascoltando una di queste storie Homa decide di uscire dalla sua dura realtà e vivere nei suoi sogni di bambina . Un giorno va alle rovine con i suoi compagni di scuola per cercare tesori nascosti, ma tutto ciò che essi riescono a trovare sono segni di guerra e distruzione.

Cosa succede se muore sua madre un giorno e la lascia sola con il fratellino?! Dio solo sa come una ragazzina orfana possa sopravvivere.

Luogo di proiezione: Associazione ChiamaMilano,

Largo Corsia dei Servi 11

vicino (Corso Emanuele 28) Zona San Babila

Quando: Mercoledi 9 Novembre

A che ora: Alle ore 20:30

Come si arriva: L’associazione Chiamamilano e’ a Largo Corsia dei Servi 11

vicino (Corso Emanuele 28) Zona San Babila e si arriva con la metro MM1, autobus 60 e 73

A short note on "A Separation" a film by Asghar Farhadi

The day of its premiere in Milan, I did not have the chance to watch the film, but I only could meet with Asfghar Farhadi a couple of hours after the film première when he had a conference in Anteo Spazio Cinema in Milan.

Fortunately today I could go and watch the film. I liked it very much!

The film was notable and it really deserved the awards it had already won in different film festivals including the Golden Bear at The Berlinale 2011.

The director was smart and knew very well how to play with the emotions of the spectators.

I haven't watched though his previous films yet, but from now on, I would like to see all his previous works and follow his upcoming projects as well.

In "A Separation" the first thing I liked was the rhythm of the overall film. Quick sequences had helped adding more tension to the story.

If I'm not wrong, almost the entire film was shot by camera in hand or over shoulder, not still and stable shots. This holding on shoulder action of the camera work, helped giving more energy to the film and gave a good pace to the sequences. I liked the photography in general as well, while a lot of medium close shots were used that give a very easy chance to the spectators to get very close and feel being very into the core of "what is happening".

The performances were excellent, almost all characters. The actors some of whom are very famous like Laila Hatami have performed realistically, as the performance of non- professional once-used actors who are used to play the role of their real lives and are usually forgotten after one or a couple of performances.

During his conference after the premiere, the director mentioned that before he used non-professional actors in his films but then he has decided not to continue it anymore.

The story is about a couple with a teenage daughter who want to separate but can not for each of them has his and her own problems.

With a very simple linear storyline it begins with a scene in a civil court about the separation of the couple and then other things begin to happen and slowly on the spectators merge into the story and goes on with it until the last minute.

Going on with the film, the spectators begin to discover one by one the gaps between different social classes and their specific problems, the social complications that exist in contemporary Iran, the complication of laws and their controversy with the social circumstances of people’s lives.

The existence of “Human conscience” and “The Question of Morality” in a today’s society with its specific problems is a point highlighted, questioned and balanced in different circumstances to put the spectators the question, “What would you do, if you were him or her?”

The film does not have slogans and it is well- made in a realistic style. The scenes in the courts are shot very real and with documentaritic style.

The other point of strength of the film is that it doesn’t judge the characters by painting them absolutely black or entirely white, but it puts them in different situations with different reactions and gives a space for the spectators to think and judge them based on each condition they were in.

I think the good thing about a successful film is that "what comes next" would be in contrast with what the spectators expect, I like this method in filmmaking, and Asfghar Farhadi was successful in playing a game with the spectators to keep them in the salon until the end, and then at the end let them go home with a burden of thoughts in mind and many “Uuuuffffs”, "WHYs" and "I WISHs" and a sympathy or a feeling of the spectators with the characters they saw in the film; thoughts that may jingle for a long time in their minds and keep them thinking about the film and its characters.

“Within the mists” at the 10th International Exile Film Festival Gothenburg Sweden

“Within the mists” was screened at the 10^th International Exile Film Festival in Gothenburg on October 8^th 2011 in presence of Writer/Director Mohammad Amin Wahidi.

The film was appraised by the present audience and the director was accompanied by long clapping of the audience in the salon.

At the end of the screening, the audience had comments and questions on the film which were answered by the director of the film.

The International Exile Film Festival is a non- competitive film festival held every other year in Gothenburg Sweden.

International Exile Film Festival is a non competitive biennial film festival which is held every other year in Gothenburg Sweden.

The first version of this film festival was held in 1993 and then it has been continuing until this year.

In the beginning it was called Film Festival of the Iranian Filmmakers in Exile but then it changed into an International Film Festival.

The tagline to know what type of film festival it is, is: "The World is My Home" and this festival aims to bring together the filmmakers in exile and refuge.

The director and the founder of the festival is Mr. Hussain Mahini, an Iranian Filmmaker exiled to Sweden.

This year version of the festival is held from 6-14 October and the films are screened in five different spots in Gothenburg city.

The participation, selection, screenings, nominations and winnings of "Within the mists" in other International Film Festivals will be reported on due time on this blog .

“Within the mists” Cast & Crew Premiere in Milan

“Within the mists” was premiered for the first time for cast & crew on Wednesday September 28 in Milan.

Cast:

Smail Djennadi, Anna Castellazzi, Antonio Muscatella

Babacar Mbaye, Cesare Musi

Clarrissa Filippini, Emma de Nicola , Federico Lotteri,

Giuseppe Cillis, Roberta Frau

Sabrina Risi And

Behnaam Ahmadi

Crew:

Scriptwriter & Director: Mohammad Amin Wahidi

Producers: Mohammad Amin Wahidi- Lorenzo Marco Masante

Director of Photography: Lorenzo Marco Masante

Casting & Assistant director: Laura Manconi

Production and location assistant: Emma de Nicola

Set and costume design: Paola Denisio

Make up: Antonietta Tanzi

Sound: Mattia Simone Giubilei - Mohammad Rahime

Music and sound effects: Antonio Cavadini

Editing: Lorenzo Marco Masante- Mohammad Amin Wahidi

Plot:

A refugee writer/poet is trying to make relation with the city he has moved into but he fails. As a lonely man, he is a citizen of nowhere thus he tries to find a link between his present and past. He suffers solitude and tries to find a meaning for his life, could it be love, love of a human being. would he leave the city and its crazy people, could this be a concrete solution for him?

The first festival screening of “Within the mists” is October 8 2011 at The 10^th International Exile Film Festival, in Gothenburg Sweden.

Participation, official selection, screenings and winnings in all other film festivals will be posted here on due time.

WITHIN THE MISTS officially selected at The 10th International Exile Film Festival Gothenburg Sweden

Film Title: “Within the mists”

Written and Directed by: Mohammad Amin Wahidi

Location: Milan-Italy

Duration: 30 Minutes

Production(s):

Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan

Remspot Italy

Year: 2011

Language: Italian

Subtitles: English

Synopsis

Mr. X is a single man, poet, painter and writer. He is a refugee in a big city which he thinks has swollen his identity.

His poems are refused by publishers and he doesn’t find a love.

Every night he has nightmare and thinks he has lost himself in this big city.

He goes to a doctor because his friends have counseled him, and in the first look, he falls in love with the doctress, seeing her beautiful eyes.

One day he finds falling red apples from the basket of an old lady on the street, he follows her to give her back the apples, but she disappears.

Since then, with those red apples he falls in love with a girl every night he dreams.

Finally one day, he meets two people in a bar: the lady of the read apples and a beautiful barkeeper that is mistaken to his doctress, but they say none of them knows him. He leaves the bar angrily and outside the bar he meets the girl of his dreams with another man but she doesn’t know him either.

It is the day he decides to leave this city and its entire crazy people.

Click Here to see Exile Film Festival

WITHIN THE MISTS is ready

Film Title: “Within the mists”

Written and Directed by: Mohammad Amin Wahidi

Location: Milan-Italy

Duration: 29 Minutes

Production(s):

Deedenow Cinema Production Afghanistan

Remspot Italy

Year: 2011

Language: Italian

Subtitles: English

Plot

A refugee writer/poet is trying to make relation with the city he has moved into but he fails. A man alone, he is a citizen of nowhere thus he tries to find a link between his present and past. He suffers solitude and tries to find a meaning for his life, could it be love, love of a human being. At the end he leaves the city and its crazy people, but could this be a concrete solution for him? In three words this film is about: nostalgia, solitude and homelessness.

Within the mists?!

“Within the mists” is the title of an independent short film in post production by Deedenow Cinema Afghanistan and Rem-spot Italy.

The story is about an artist being lost within the mists of the city he lives in. He is being lost in his illusions and the existing realities around him and tries to come out of this situation.

Smail Djennadi has played the role of Mr. X in this short film.

The bad whether this year lengthened the project until mid January while it had began late November.

It has been now three years of my residence in Italy, and so far what only I could do was writing screenplays for short films hoping to be realized one day on the land I am trying to find me once again out of the mists that surrounds me. Out of several screenplays I have written so far to be self produced, this short is the first one as the beginning of moving on track once again.

It has been a nice experience though, especially getting to know many good people and making many good friends and collaborators that could result collaborations in the future projects.

Here I ought to thank the crew members; Marco Masante, Laura Manconi, Paola Denisio, Emma De Nicola, Smail Djennadi Reza Karimi, Mattia Giubilei and the friends of ChiamaMilano who helped us during the casting.

A short film by a young Hazara filmmaker from Afghanistan

Mohmmad Reza Sahibdaad

Lately the Iranian Regime has stopped more than one thousand and five hundred Afghan fuel trucks in their borders when they were transiting to Afghanistan.

This has caused the rapid rise in the cost of fuel in this cold winter in Afghanistan while millions of people are dying of hunger and coldness.

The Iranian Regime would not suffice only to training and supplying the Taliban with weapons for destruction of Afghanistan, but also they kill the Afghan refugees who are in the search of sanctuaries in Iran. The IRI Regime would also torture even the children of those refugees who sought for sanctuaries in Iran.

Here is a short film by a keen-eyed young Afghan (Hazara) filmmaker on how life passes for the children of Afghan refugees in Iran, the generation that has a gloom future in front of them in Iran.

The director is Mohammad Reza Sahibdaad who is now residing in France.

Deedenow Cinema will post M. Reza Sahibdaad’s other works in the future.

The Sweet Melody of Politics

It is worth to vote for a documentary done by a new talent female Hazara Filmmaker who tries to give a different identity for her gender.

Mona Haidari, a 21 year old, Hazara filmmaker who participated in Atelier Varan documentary workshops in Kabul has made this documentary.

The documentary is about a young woman, who first became a quite famous singer through a music competition show on TV who then runs for politics, in the land of contrasts, where the women are imprisoned in the cages of ignorance by men.

On this land, when a girl is born in a family it is considered mistreatment of the nature, and then, when a girl becomes an artist, she is considered to be against the culture.

To break this taboo against the women, it is helpful to encourage the young female filmmakers who try to depict the lives of those women taking parts in struggles for their rights and bringing changes to the lives of other women.

Voting this documentary would be an encouragement to the filmmaker to reflect more and more women’s voices in her future works.

The Sweet Melody of Politics from Women's Voices Now on Vimeo.