Sunday, November 23, 2014

45th IFFI-Cinema Means Love and Responsibility not Business: Mohsen Makhmalbaf

Cinema has different meanings for different persons. For me Cinema is love and responsibility towards society and not  pure business, says Mohsen Makhmalbaf, one of the legend film makers in Iran contemporary World.. Interacting with the press at 45th International Film Festival of India, he said that he loves India for its culture, diversity of ideas, philosophies and Gandhi’s idea of non-violence. He loves Indian audience for the way they comment, share and discuss cinema. He narrated that as a child he could not watch cinema because of religious views of his grandmother. She used to tell him that those watching cinema are cursed to go to hell. He was arrested for political reasons and was in jail for five years. He suffered bullet injuries and underwent three surgeries. Getting access to books after six months in jail, he read about 2000 books in four years of imprisonment. Initially influenced by revolutionary ideas of Che Guevara, he came to appreciate ideas of non-violence as preached by Mahatma Gandhi. He said that his family has five film makers, three are women and two men are in minority. His wife MarziehMeshkinihas directed ‘The Day I Became a Woman’ (RooziKeZanShodam) which is being screened at the IFFI. The film is on the status of Iranian women.


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