Massoud Bakhshi

Perspective. Some people might argue that a good (i.e. open, unbiased, realist) perspective is the key for any artistic approach to an issue. Regarding documentary filmmaking in particular, this is more an undisputable truth than a general opinion. And Massoud Bakhshi, an Iranian filmmaker born in Tehran in 1972, seems to have a good deal of it, as he has demonstrated in his very well-received 2007 documentary Tehran has no pomegranates!, an irony-driven and multi-formatted patchwork that Variety described as an “imaginative and engaging history of Tehran”.

Indeed, if one thing is clear after seeing the film is Massoud’s love for his home town, a hard place to be growing up during the seventies, which he describes as an “amazing and at the same time bitter experience. Amazing because I’ve witnessed - as a 6-year-old kid - the last revolution [the Islamic revolution which overthrew the Shah in 1978] and also the longest war of the century [against Iraq from 1980-88]; and bitter because it was a bloody revolution and a terrible war, with one million Iranian young men dead”.

And how does one gain perspective? Well, a pretty simple answer would be to say that it comes from one’s own life experience. And in the case of Massoud and his childhood during the revolution and the war, this is precisely what happened: “I will take the consequences of these two events with me to the grave”, he says. “But on the other hand, the experience of the revolution and the war made me and my generation learn to be strong and hopeful, and to love life and know its values”.

Some distance can also help to see things much clearer. Massoud has spent short - but numerous - stays in Europe (some as part of his education), a distance that might have been good not just to put things in their right context, but also to clear the way and dive more freely into his own cultural roots. Actually, although he says he has learned a lot from European cinema, especially the French Nouvelle Vague and Italian Neorealism, he has always felt attached to Iranian culture, especially literature: “Before I started to write about film - and later began making them - I used to read and write poems and literary works. I love cinema because it’s a strange mix of every art form, and at the same time it is a reality itself”, he says.

When asked about the current state of Iranian cinema his point of view reflects those very same ideas about the diverse nature of film: “There’s a rich tradition of "narration" in Iranian culture, and on the other hand, documentary film is at the base of Iranian art cinema”, he explains. “I think the new generation of Iranian filmmakers is coming now, and they try to marry these two lines which will let Iranian cinema to shine again”. Far from a mere observational position though, he himself will officiate at this genre wedding, as he is now working on a documentary about his own nieces while also developing his first feature film called Seven Years Old, inspired by his own childhood experiences. The feature project has been selected for this year’s Script&Pitch, the training programme of the TorinoFilmLab taking place at the Alba Film Festival.

“I think answering about influences is somehow difficult and impossible”, says Massoud when asked about where he has found inspiration. “In my case, I can say that every true art work and all of the events of life here in Iran had their influences on me, in one way or another. If someone looks and thinks attentively, he can find many interesting things in any kind of art works, even in the most primitive ones. It is important to be as curious as a kid, till the end of life”. How does one gain perspective in cinema? Well, there it is.

Agustín Mango