FILM, BUSINESS, OR HOLINESS?

Panorama.am
15:58 15/07/2008

In the frames of 5th international film festival ‘Golden Apricot’ the
participants of film competition- Chinese director Tsay Shangzhun and
Persian director Abolfazl Safari had a meeting with the journalists.

In words of Mikayel Stamboltsyan, the head of festival project,
who was present in the press conference, during the festival Persian
and Chinese young directors will show their works and each of them
represents the film-world typical to his/her world. ‘The young
generation of Chinese, in contrast with the elder one pays much
attention to the life of ordinary people, whereas in Persia it
is vice versa. Today`s generation doubts on simple truths’,- said
M. Stamboltsyan.

‘I am in Yerevan for the first time, but it seems to me that I have
been here,’- said the Chinese director Tsay Shangzhun. His ‘Red
Combine’ tells about antagonism and conciliation of a father and a
son. In the film the father leaves his family and goes to the city
but for other reason. ‘In China the cities thrive very fast, but the
villages still stay backward, – said the director. The main idea of
the film is that people leave their house and lose their individuality
in order to start a new life, to be fairly well-off. As a result they
don`t become a city dweller.

Persian director Abolfazl Safari is also in Armenia for the first
time. His film ‘Edge of the Earth’ shown in the festival, is the first
fiction of the director, as he has created only documentary films. The
film is about an old, lonely man who is called Robinson Crusoe.

‘In this competitive films, of course, the effect of documentary is
noticeable’,- said he.

For Persian director the film could never have a commersion meaning:
to serve as business. ‘Film is a holiness for me’, – said A. Safari.