Authorize to release of The Twelve Seats, which has been released at the 30th Fajr International Film Festival before, is in unclear whether.
Esmael Barari, the director, said: “The Twelve Seats has been released at the 30th Fajr International Film Festival last year, but now it’s screen is closed. When we asked about the reason for closure, they told you should change the subject of movie and every scene in which Amir Abbas Hoveyda is called, has to be removed.” (Hoveyda was the Prime minister in the former regime and was executed after Islamic revolution.)
The director continued: “There is a wrong system in Ministry of Culture; permit members for making movies and permit members for releasing movies are different, and sometimes they compete with each other. When a movie has been made, there is no way to change its structure. How can I change the subject of The Twelve Seats? Unless the movie has been respectfully closed! ”
He said: “If you look at the movies of the past few years, you will understand the officials' tastes for selecting movies: cheap and invaluable movies. After two months and a half trying hard for releasing movie, they asked us cutting some parts of the movie. But by cutting these parts, nothing will remain in the movie!”
This movie is a free adaptation based on “The Twelve Chairs” novel written by Soviet authors Ilia Ilf and Yevgeni Petrove released in 1928. This novel has been adapted to film for 17 times until now.
This director, who has three unscreened movies in his resume, added: “Unfortunately some movies that I have made haven’t permit to screen in Iran, although they have won prizes in at least 20 countries. Why our cinema officials can’t distinguish the right way?”
He finished his words by describing the situation of screening of The Twelve Seats: “The Ministry of Culture behaves like a mad who drops a big stone in a well, and even 40 wise people can’t pull it up.”
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