I mean, when was the last time we witnessed the huge success of a major Iranian film in cinemas across the country – let alone across the globe? A major hit so gigantic that its sweet memory stayed in our hearts and minds for months - even years? Something that made us feel good, that made us feel proud of our beloved country and ourselves? Something that made us contemplate and talk about it for ages without fearing criticism because everyone loved it regardless? Can you remember such event? Can you put your finger on it now? When was it that we all, I mean all the young and the old together rushed to the cinemas to watch a great Iranian motion picture that was a huge hit, i.e. commercial and intellectual? Then came back home and recommended it to our weary friends with a childish joy and titillation? Then decided to sneak back into the dark room and watch it one more time - this time with friends? Then sickeningly realized we simply could not get enough of it, so crawled back and watched it one last time just before it disappeared from the marquees for good?? Then went through the paper and film magazines to dig out any quick-witted points we failed to comprehend and/or simply missed because we were busy devouring our popcorns during those crucial scenes? When was it? Can you put your finger on it now? I guess the answer is negative.
What is the reason behind such a huge gap in our cinema industry anyway? Well, the answer is simple. These days, instead of making movie hits that will encourage us to construct new cinemas or renovate the old ones - at least keep them open - we unwisely persist in making antagonistic ones that invite us to close and abandon them.
As a student abroad, I remember witnessing the "Titanic" phenomenon. I do not agree with the contents of the film at all, but I am referring to what it did to the financial state of the cinema industry at that short period of time and how its success saved a lot of businesses as a result.
To begin with, from across the globe, the audience response to the film was out of the ordinary and beyond belief. It was what they were waiting for. They literally went insane! Some sad people even watched it more than twenty times! So there was no surprise that for three months our local cinema had to borrow greasy chairs, even stools from all the neighboring sandwich shops, coffee shops and the odd ice cream shop in order to provide extra seats for all those impatient standing patrons inside the auditorium. After three months of screening madness, when this giant monster was put to sleep, the cinema owners made so much money that they immediately closed the place, knocked it down and replaced it with a brand new multiplex.
This is the kind of excitement and success story I am talking about. This is the kind of miracle I am praying to happen to our own cinema industry. This is the kind of film event I am really hoping for our forgotten and abandoned movie theaters.
The problem of demolished and deserted cinemas is not restricted to our own country. It is also a serious problem across the globe. Europe is the worst hit. It is difficult to find a cinema theater that shows locally produced movies.
Of course, there are few theaters that specialize in screening local films, art films, documentaries or independent films. But the puzzle is more disturbing than that - the numbers simply do not add up when it comes to a true film event that its success has nothing to do with the Hollywood studios. To make things worse, most of the cinema multiplexes in the world are also currently under lengthy contracts with the Hollywood studios – some infinitely! These Americanized cinemas have no rights to show anything other than the American feature films.
Iranian filmmakers are fortunate in this regard - thanks to the wise policies of the officials. Hence, the problem of monopolized distribution and screening of American movies controlled by the American film studios does not exist in Iran. We are fortunate. We produce and distribute our own films. But are we really making distinctive features that can successfully outdo the oversimplified American ones?
On the one hand, it breaks my heart every time I pass by a closed and deserted cinema. It hurts to remember that once as a small child I used to watch films there. Where have all the managers and employees gone? What happened to all those hardworking projectionists who had to work hard in the heat of the projection room? On the other hand, I can also picture the disillusioned cinemagoers that are now busy getting unhealthy in front of their tiny TV boxes.
Something is wrong. Something is terribly wrong with the cinema industry and it is going to cost us dearly. Iranian filmmakers and film producers have to work much harder than this if they wish to see their films last on the silver screens.
But what can be done about the sorry state of our cinemas? Well, there are two solutions. We can either open the doors for the greedy American studios to come and contract our cinemas indefinitely, which is out of the question because it will devastate our own cinema industry. Or we can try to make films - both commercial and intellectual - that will encourage our disillusioned filmgoers to return to the dark rooms.
The German filmmaker, Wim Wenders, once said, "The American filmmakers have colonized our minds and hearts and there is nothing we can do about it."
Here, we can prove him wrong.
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