where the sun shines vertically

About where the sun shines vertically

At the beginning of spring 2011, I had an adventurous trip to Sistan and Baluchestan province in the south of Iran with a number of friends. It was a hard, enjoyable, and memorable trip.

The trip was exploratory for me in a number of ways. Most importantly, I had grown up in the culture of northern Iran, where the people are not strictly religious. Now I was stepping into southern Iran, a Sunnite region with strong religious beliefs. The Sunnite community is very difficult to get mixed with because of its own conservatism, the unfriendly treatment of the central government over the past years, and because they have been shunned by the locals.

During the 20-day trip, we went to various villages and I met three khans in the region, each with a different perspective of the women and the life. Interestingly, the closer we got to the Iran-Pakistan border, the more religious people became, and their culture and customs were more like Pakistan than Iran.

In those 20 days, I noticed that the women rarely appeared in the town and in the public, and when they did, they wore burqas. It was extremely difficult to shoot women in the region, and few women would appear in front of the camera. I had worked in the north of the country before, and making a film in the south of the country was a new experience for me. Given the knowledge I had gained about that community, I wanted to make a film in that region.

During a few years of friendship, those three khans came to my house in Tehran a few times, and I became their guest once again. Then I decided to make a film about them, but I knew from the beginning that because of the religious beliefs in that society, I would not be able to get into their lives much and depict details, so I took an anthropological approach to make the film. I chose the focus of the film the kind of approach towards women and life in the society and tried to follow the same theme in all three episodes of the film in order to portray that society and the viewpoint of its people.

The documentary Where the Sun Shines Vertically is about three headmen living on the coast of Gulf of Oman and their stance on the women and life.

The film begins on the border of Iran and Pakistan in the port of Beris, the water border between Gulf of Oman and Indian Ocean with the life of Abdol Majid Baluch, the mechanic of outboard motor boats. The people of the region use these boats to catch fish. Then we get to the town of Zarabad and meet the family of Omar Ladi who live on the coast of Gulf of Oman and earn a living by farming. In the third episode, we accompany Morteza Nasoori, the skipper of a fishing launch in Sirik Port in Strait of Hormuz, the water border between Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf.

View the documentary Gila & Galesh

Documenting A Little Death is Needed for Life

 

Synopsis A Little Death is Needed for Life

A father trying to overcome cancer and to return to life, is confronted with his son whose drug addiction is destroying his life. 

Director Statement

I grew up in the southern neighborhoods of Tehran. As drugs were easily available, many of my peers were caught in the trap of addiction. Having witnessed their deterioration and that of their families, and sometimes even their death, I have always felt the urge to make a film about drug addiction.
A while ago, Mohsen Ostad Ali, one of my filmmaker friends, suggested that we make a film on cancer in the northern provinces of Iran. I had just lost a family member to cancer, so I embraced the idea.
During the research period, I got to know the Mokhtaris, a family living in the north. On the one hand, I saw a father fighting cancer and trying to return to life, and on the other hand, there was his addicted son, whose every move and action was aimed at destroying life.
This was what threw me back to my old calling. I did everything to convince the Mokhtaris to allow me to make a film about their life.

Documentary The culture means

The description of the director of Film The culture means

The film Culture means… is about the coming of automobiles to Iran and its change since then. The film’s narrative revolves around nine influential artists in the Iranian society, who have lost their lives in car accidents.

On 24 March 2015, I heard the news of the death of my artist friend, Arash Talebi. All the new year holiday of Nowruz 2015, I was thinking why a young man, full of talent, capability, and motivation should lose his life in an accident and all his dreams and expectations of others for his future successes would burst like a bubble and be destroyed. The incident caused me to do an extensive research for a year on the coming of the cars to Iran, its evolution since then, and how the culture of driving in Iran took shape. In the meantime, I realised that many artists had lost their lives due to the saddening driving accidents. It is very painful that artists, who are the culture makers of the society, lose their lives due to the poor driving culture in the same society. More painful is that the authorities and policymakers of the society, who must devise and implement the driving culture, refer their duties from one organisation to another.

It was important to me to distance myself from the atmosphere of a reportage and not to only provide information and statistics on accidents. The two-year process of making this film was very hard and saddening; from the lack of cooperation on the part of the organisations that had to provide accurate information and statistics, to the institutions responsible for the culture-making in this regard, and worst of all the people who do not feel responsible for themselves and their dear ones.

According to my research and the statistics I obtained, about 800,000 traffic accidents occur annually in Iran, killing 43 people every day. That is one death per 71 minutes. And every year, 300,000 people are injured in the car accidents. In fact, car accidents in Iran claim most lives only second to the air pollution. With 18,000 road deaths every year, Iran ranks among the top in the world.

The most important reasons for the accidents include human factors such as speeding, reckless driving and disregarding the traffic regulations and poor training, technical factors such as worn-out cars, the low safety level of vehicles, failing to properly control technically the existing vehicles, and the low quality and low standard of the roads.

I hope this film has portrayed a portion of the sad story of our poorness and lack of culture in transportation and driving, and it will be a warning to the public and the authorities who are responsible for the policymaking and management of this sector.