|
AKU-ISMC hosts screening and discussion session with Rakhshan Bani Etemad
 |
| Iranian film director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and MA in Muslim Cultures student Rahim Bagheri. |
On the 18th of April, AKU-ISMC held a film screening and discussion session with the internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director and screenwriter Rakhshan Bani-Etemad.
Students, faculty and staff of the Institute watched Bani-Etemad’s latest film, Mainline (2006), after which she discussed her work and experiences with the audience. Mainline is about the deterioration of a middle-class girl struggling with a heroin addiction. It provides a startling perspective on the reality of drug addiction and its consequences.
Professor Modjtaba Sadria facilitated the session, introducing Bani-Etemad as a filmmaker who is defined first and foremost by her committment to exploring social issues within Iran. He said that an interesting aspect of Mainline is the film's portrayal of the intimate social support networks relied upon when these problems arise - in particular networks of family and friends.
Bani-Etemad explained that her interest in filmmaking has arisen from a passion for exposing problems in society. She explained that her filmmaking aims to create a relationship between images on the screen and changes that happen within society.
 |
| The audience listens to Bani-Etemad speak about her most recent work, Mainline, and her experiences as a film director. |
Born in Tehran, Bani-Etemad studied film and directing at the University of Dramatic Arts. She began her career as a documentary filmmaker for Iranian television and directed her first feature, Off the Limits, in 1987.
Through her work as a TV documentary maker, Bani-Etemad explained, she always struggled to bring images of social problems to the screen. Around 40 years ago, she made a documentary about addiction in Iran. In order to research the material for this documentary, she lived with a number of drug-addicted youths.
Explaining the background to the social problems related to drugs in Iran, Bani-Etemad explained that the geographical location (on the main drug trafficking route between Central Asia and Europe), and youthful demographic of the country (those under thirty make up more than seventy per cent of the population) are contributing factors to a large number of young people falling victim to drug addiction.
Although the first documentary that Bani-Etemad made was not broadcast on Iranian television, she shared her work with families of drug addicted youths and decided to create a film which looked at the changed patterns of drug use, in particular, that of young women being addicted to drugs.
After two years of research, Bani-Etemad began to write the screenplay for the film, which took almost three years. Bani-Etemad noted that the research that the film required was mentally and physically exhausting, due in part to the denial of the state of addiction by middle class young people.
Following the talk by Bani-Etemad, a lively discussion was held which explored the themes raised by the movie and her experiences as a filmmaker.
Bani-Etemad was in London as part of a season of events celebrating her work that includes a season of her films at the British Film Institute (BFI) Southbank, a conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and a 6-day filmmaking class presented by Insight and SOAS in association with the Iran Heritage Foundation.
External Links*
Online Resources
* Links to sites does not imply endorsement of the contents of those sites. AKU-ISMC is not responsible for content on external sites.
|
