Hafez

Hafez
Hafez

Iran 2007 

directed by
Abolfazl Jalili

screenplay
Abolfazl Jalili

cinematography
Abolfazl Jalili

music
Yungchen Lhamo, Abolfazl Jalili, Daf Group

sound
Mehrdad Dadgari, Masih Seraj, Mehdi Asadi

editing
Abolfazl Jalili

cast
Mehdi Moradi, Kumiko Aso, Mehdi Negahban, Hamide Hedayati

producer
Abolfazl Jalili, Yuji Sadai
production
First Film Milad – Iran
T +98 21 88781753
Bitters End – Japan
T +81 3 3462 0621

world sales
Bitters End – Japan
T +81 3 3462 0621

format
35 mm, barvni/colour

running time
98'

Shams al-Din, who was given a nickname Hafez (after a Persian poet) for reciting Koran, gets an invitation with a mission to teach the philosophy of the sacred book to mufti’s daughter Nabat. Through discussions about religion, philosophy and poetry a forbidden affection develops between the teacher and his student. Their feelings do not remain unseen. Through the complex picture of sufi doctrine in spite of obvious touch of religion develops a love story, similar to that of Romeo and Juliet. Just like a visual master, Jalili almost perfectly interweaves in sound picture visual elements with an ambiguous content that demand viewer’s attention. The interplay of hundreds of years old traditions with ordinary things and situations, such as traveling by car and plane, creates interesting anachronisms, which are not the only ace of, according to some, the most inventive and creative director from Iran.

»When I started my first film 25 years ago, it was about children in the prison that has been left over from the shahs' Pahlavi times. That film has been banned at the beginning of the revolution, and later i couldn't get any permission for my films from the government. This is my 13th film that I have made and it was not shown, because it was made without the government's permission. After the last election, the new government has said to me: 'Bring your films and we will see what we can do,' but since my films haven't been shown in Iran for so many years, I am now making films for foreign audience.« (Abolfazl Jalili)

Abolfazl Jalili

Iranski režiser, rojen leta 1957, je že v sedemdesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja začel s snemanjem kratkih dokumentarnih filmov, prvi celovečerec Milad pa je predstavil leta 1983. Sledili so mu, med drugimi, Det Means Girl (1994), Dance of Dust (1998) in Full or Empty (2005). V svojih filmih običajno ne nastopa le v režiserski vlogi, marveč je podpisan tudi pod scenarije in montažo, v Hafezu pa je ustvaril tudi glasbo.