I
had a great opportunity to know Hasti
Saadi who is, for me, one of the most accomplished Iranian female short movie
maker and scriptwriter. After having watched her stunning deeply journey to the
memories 'Melody Of Cradle', I decided to know and interview with her.
She tried to express
her own cinematic language on a woman who keep herself hiding in her memories
in an enourmously memory house of her own which always let her to come in as
sanctuary. She finds a way to see her passed-away childhood alive and those things
tie her down in a good bond which she always used to do. The memories that she
could not push down or keeps her alive.
It was a sophisticated
and traditional motifs that I could find in Melody of Cradle and swept me away
to the nooks where she will be facing her past just like looking into mirror.
Her way of making a
movie is so naive and profound that I can't help myself admiring her
characteristic nuances and read the subtexts of her movie.
We had a cordial
interview with her and talked about her way of movie making and more than that;
Could you tell me how
your movie making story begins?
Since I was 8 years
old I had an interest in art, at the age 13 I had a passion for cinema, used to
follow all news related cinema. I just followed my passion and studied
photography and media. It is 4 years that I work and make short films and
documentaries.
Let’s talk about
Melody of cradle. What motives especially had an effect on you for making this
movie?
My own life and personal experience had a
great effect to make "Melody of Cradle". When my brother came back to
Iran after 15 years to visit the story became completed and I finished the
script.
You like to make woman
films considering the inner diffusion
had your character has made us feeling what and how strong memories were stuck
in that woman and the reminds of day of her childhood, as well as the
prostitute who performed in The Luminance. Well, can we say that Hasti Saadi
will put the reflections of a woman life whilst making her movies?
Maybe you are right;
but it's not just the reflections of a woman life, when it comes to the
memories, the past, and the inner complex of human being, men and women getting
involve emotionally but with different reaction and story.
What sort of
techniques did you us for making Melody of Cradle?
While I was shooting
the film just i tried to have all the images in a right frame and mostly shot
on tripod but for editing i used filters to change the images look like an old
pictures we all have in our childhood albums to make the nostalgia.
In general
explanation, I see some kind of connection reflects your cinema is that putting
realistic sensibility aside and taking the metaphoric mentality which points
out what strongly you try to transfer. This sometimes happen from old to new,
sometimes past to future etc. Is that what you have in your mind to make your
characters speak with audiences?
What I believe and
tried to transfer is a kind of pain that we all experience at a different level
and a different period of our lives. There is a moment that we all face the
reality of life and being an adult. say goodbye to our childhood and go on...
Could you tell me what
Hasti Saadi have a language on making her personal movies and what direction
she follows indeed?
Yes. As you have
mentioned making a film is personal for me. So the direction I am going to
follow will be my dreams and the questions cause by life.
On mentioning that the
final scene of Melody of Cradle, can we come to the point of whatever we have
things to live, we never put memories behind because it is hard to put things
right what we did in our past, so have to keep it going?
Yes, the memories
can't be deleted because they make us who we are today. But in the other hand
nothing belong to us and we belong to our destiny. The memories are the
reflection of our life's experience.
What movies or
directors have an effect on you before you have started making movies and now?
I usually don't limit
myself and I watch different movies from different directors. I have to admit
all i have seen, it had an effect on me. But the only director who had an
influence on me since I was so young I should say an Iranian filmmaker "
Abbas Kiarostami " and after i have attended to his workshop he became one
of the reason that I am working seriously in this field.
Any future new works
on the agenda? If yes, what is it about and when?
Right now I am working
on my next short film script which i am planning to make it soon. It's a story
between a father and his son ... the missing relationship between them...
For a woman, how it is
like making movies in Iran?
It's exactly how it's
like for men. For making a film you have to get a permit to shoot like the most
countries in the world. The time that I applied for permit no one stopped me
because I'm a woman.
I want to thank you
for giving me a chance to know Hasti Saadi and her way cinema which makes me
feel there are a lot of futuristic
masterpieces of her that I am gonna
watch soon.