Speaking to Mehr News correspondent on Sunday following speculations about the resemblance of his poster for ‘Boarding Pass’ – a 2017 Iranian drama directed by Mehdi Rahmani – to an American Sci-Fi film ‘Flatliners’ by Niels Arden Oplev, Taha Zaker said he would soon file a complaint against Sony Pictures for plagiarizing his poster design.
“I designed the poster for ‘Boarding Pass’ back in 2016 before the 35th edition of Fajr Film Festival went underway, but the film was not accepted into the screening program of the festival so the poster did not get a chance to be unveiled at the time,” Zaker explained.
“Ultimately, the poster was sent to Berlin, Cannes and Venice film festivals in the form of a DVD cover. The film featuring my poster took part in Cannes film market and was displayed to the public then,” he added.
“On 13 June 2017, the poster and trailer for ‘Flatliners’ were unveiled, which was a few months after the participation of ‘Boarding Pass’ in Cannes film market,” Zaker said.
We have all the necessary documents and proof about the exact date of designing and unveiling the poster, as well as the date of its submission to the Berlin film festival, he added.
Zaker noted that the reason he had decided to look up the Flatliners’ poster was the accusations he received about his own poster being a copy of the American film; “I found it very interesting that the posters were very similar in terms of form and theme, but the artist has gone about the design differently,” he added.
“Quite by accident I noticed that ‘Flatliners’ has several posters which bear an uncanny resemblance to all the posters for ‘Boarding Pass’,” he said. “While it is possible that two people across the world would simultaneously have the same idea for a design, it becomes quite suspicious when two posters for the same film look like a copy.”
He went on to note that he has consulted with an Iranian lawyer about the case, adding “if we can prove that the similarity between the two posters is something more than a coincidence, I will file a complaint against Sony Pictures.”
“Since these companies are under copyright protection, we can actually pursue the case, provided that the resemblance between the two posters are confirmed by relevant experts in the US,” he added.
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