INTERVIEW: Charting the remarkable journey of ‘Yalda, A Night for Forgiveness’
Photo: Yalda, A Night of Forgiveness stars Sadaf Asgari and Behnaz Jafari. Photo courtesy of Film Movement / Provided by Foundry Communications with permission.
When the new film Yalda, A Night of Forgiveness won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, director Massoud Bakhshi was able to celebrate an important milestone in a long journey he had taken — a journey that started back in 2012. The drama from the Iranian filmmaker is set almost entirely within a studio for a popular reality TV show, according to press notes. On this stage, Maryam (Sadaf Asgari) asks for forgiveness for killing her husband, Nasser. The person who can grant her that forgiveness, and a stay of execution, is Nasser’s daughter, Mona (Behnaz Jafari).
“It all started during the post-production of my first feature film, A Respectable Family, in 2012,” Bakhshi said in a recent phone interview from Paris. “I remember that I saw two documentaries about some women convicted for murdering their husbands, and I always wanted to make a fiction film about this subject. And I wrote a one-page story of a woman convicted for murdering her own husband, and during the years, it became Yalda.”
That initial concept took a long time to be come a reality because the director’s first film was banned in Iran, and this caused him many troubles, both personally and professionally. He had to wait many years in order to film Yalda because he wanted to ensure everything was conducted legally and with the necessary authorizations inside his home country.
“Eventually it became possible because I succeeded to present the script and to get the permissions for the script and then for shooting,” he said of the process. “The most difficult part was the fact that I could not find the financing inside of my country. I noticed that once you are blacklisted, no one wants to produce you, and that’s why the only possible way for this project to be done was the international co-production.”
Even though Yalda is an indie film with a relatively small budget, Bakhshi needed to solicit the help of co-producers from five different countries, which made filming an even more complicated process. That’s five contracts and five producers on set, but throughout the ups and downs he kept his singular vision and stuck to his one requirement.
“I insisted from the beginning to shoot this film inside of Iran,” he said. “I remember that there was some time that some of my producers and co-producers they wanted me to shoot the film outside of Iran because it’s a kind of chamber drama. It could be shot everywhere. I said, ‘To me, it has no meaning to shoot this outside of Iran.’ I’m happy that I insisted, and finally we succeeded to shoot the film inside of Iran.”
Yalda, A Night of Forgiveness, which refers to a Zoroastrian celebration that marks the start of winter, also received permission to be released in Iranian movie theaters (the film is now available virtually in the United States thanks to Film Movement). The release in Iran didn’t go as planned, but Bakhshi was determined to see his effort through all the way until the end.
“No distributor dared to release a new film [during COVID-19],” the filmmaker said. “Of course, it was a very hard time. No one wanted to go to the theater, but we decided to give all of the income of this national release to liberate two convicted prisoners, just like the story of the film. And this became possible with the help of a non-governmental organization, a small organization run by women who spend their time and their lives to find the victim’s family and to talk to them over a long period of time, maybe some years, trying to convince them that the solution is not the execution. They can forgive the criminal — of course, only in the non-intentional murders, not intentional murder cases.”
Bakhshi’s film raised those funds and was able to contribute money to the efforts of these non-governmental organizations. “I never thought of these things while I was making the film,” he said. “I can say in the case of Yalda, in the time of distribution, it was somehow very, very important to me and all of these people involved in the distribution to have this impact and to introduce the film just like an example of the necessity of the real and truthful forgiveness in Iranian society today. That was some of the most beautiful experiences to me, to see that the film could find a public, new spectators, new audiences. From the lawyers to the journalists to the activists, everyone wanted to see this film and to follow this story to see what it’s talking about.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Yalda, A Night of Forgiveness, written and directed by Massoud Bakhshi, is now available to stream virtually from Film Movement. Click here for more information.
