Country: Iran
Year: 1989
Duration: 70'
Haji, a young soldier, leaves the hospital spending a short time there being cured of the effects of a grenade that went off. The doctors advise him to get married so that he can recuperate completely. At the same time, his fiancé's father, a businessman, wants to have his daughter marry a rich man. While he finds himself beset with marital problems, Haji acquires a new consciousness about social questions. During the time he is married, his illness makes itself felt again and he is again admitted into the hospital. When he thinks over the most recent events, he comes to the conclusion that the battlefront is the only place that is fit for him, and he leaves his bed completely restored.
"Marriage of the Blessed was shot very much before Close Up. Kiarostami's subject is close to my films and the problems that takes on are those that I develop in my works. A third of Marriage of the Blessed was shot as a documentary and many scenes are remakings of what I had personally experienced. A lot of people have told me that Salaam Cinema resembles Kiarostami's films. In fact, I had already experimented with that kind of procedure in 'Arusi-ye khuban. Therefore I have absolutely not tried to copy." (Mohsen Makhmalbaf)
Biography
film director
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Born in 1957 in a poor quarter of Tehran, Mohsen Makhmalbaf had to do more than a dozen of odd jobs lo earn his own and help support his mother between the age of eight and seventeen. When he was 15, he engaged in clandestine activity through a guerrilla group he himself had organized. Al 17, he was shot and arrested when trying to disarm a policeman and spent four and a half years in prison.
Released during the 1979 revolution, he quit all political activity and went in for literature and cinema. His published work includes about twenty volumes of novels and dramaturgy, film scripts and essays on art, some of which haze been translated into Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, Kurdish and English. With several scripts in addition lo the ones he had personally filmed, two documentaries and 20 movies edited by him, Makhmalbaf is the most prolific Iranian director of the last two decades.
His fourteen films made in as many years have invariably been, for one reason or another, controversial at home and abroad. The Peddler, The Cyclist, Marriage of the Blessed, Time for Love, Once Upon a Time, Cinema, The Actor and Salaam Cinema have so far been presented at 170 international film festivals and screened in 40 countries, with 22 prizes won among them. The awards include the top prize at the Rimini International Film Festival (Italy, 1989) and the East-West Award al the Hawaii International Film Festival (Usa, 1991) for The Cyclist; the First Prize of the Taormina International Film Festival (Italy, 1992), the jury's Special Award and the Fipresci film critics' award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Czechoslovakia, 1992), and the jury's Special Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey, 1992) for Once Upon a Time, Cinema; and the Critics' Award (Sao Paulo, Brasil, 1995) for all his works.
FILMOGRAFIA
Film di finzione/Fiction Films
Tobe-ye Nasuh (Nasooh's Repentance/Pentimento definitivo, 1982).
Do cheshm-e bi su (Two Sightless Eyes/Due occhi senza luce, 1983).
Estèaze (Seeking Refuge in God/Rifugiarsi in Dio, 1984).
Baycot (Boycott/Il boicottaggio, 1985).
Dastforush (The Peddler/L'ambulante, 1986).
Baysilkeran (The Cyclist/Il ciclista, 1987).
'Arusi-ye khuban (The Marriage of the Blessed/Il matrimonio dei benedetti, 1988).
Nobat-e asheqi (Time of Love/Tempo d'amare, 1990).
Shabhay-e Zayandeh Rud (Nights on the Zayandeh Rud/Notti sullo Zayandeh Rud, 1990).
Ruzi ruzegari cineina/Nasseroddin Shah, hactore cinema (Once Upon a Time, Cinema/C'era una volta il cinema, 1991).
Honar Pishé (The Actor/ L'attore, 1992).
Salaam Cinema (Salam Cinema, 1994).
Gabbeh (idem, 1995).
Nun va goldun (A Moment of Innocence/Un istante di innocenza,1996).
Documentari/Documentare
Gozideh tasvir dar doran-c Qajar (A Selection of Images from Qajar Era/Una selezione di immagini del periodo Qajar, 1992).
Sang-o shisheh (The Stone and the Glass/La pietra e il vetro, 1993).
Cast
& Credits
Regia, sceneggiatura, scenografia e montaggio: Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Director of photography: Ali Reza Zarrindast.
Music: Babak Bayat.
Special effects: Reza Sharafoddin.
Trucco: Abdollah Eskandari.
Cast and characters: Mahmud Bigham (Haji), Roya Nonahali (Mehri), Mohsen Zehtab (Sha'ban Khan), Ebrahim Abadi (zio Ramezoon), Hossein Moslemi (Mamali).
Production company: Istituto per gli affari cinematografici della fondazione Mostaz'afan.
Foreign sales agent: Farabi Cinema Foundation, 55 Sie-Tir Avenue, 11358 Tehran, Iran, tel. +98-21- 671010, fax +98-21-678155.
Director of photography: Ali Reza Zarrindast.
Music: Babak Bayat.
Special effects: Reza Sharafoddin.
Trucco: Abdollah Eskandari.
Cast and characters: Mahmud Bigham (Haji), Roya Nonahali (Mehri), Mohsen Zehtab (Sha'ban Khan), Ebrahim Abadi (zio Ramezoon), Hossein Moslemi (Mamali).
Production company: Istituto per gli affari cinematografici della fondazione Mostaz'afan.
Foreign sales agent: Farabi Cinema Foundation, 55 Sie-Tir Avenue, 11358 Tehran, Iran, tel. +98-21- 671010, fax +98-21-678155.
