Mahmoud Rahmani director of ’My Mother, Oak’

What made you become a filmmaker?

I was born in the city of Bakhtiari tribe in Khuzestan, where I could not hear the roar of guns and there was not even a cinema. I can’t remember anything but a few black and white images. Nothing important happened to me. My teenage years were not full of uncertainty like others’ because I always felt that God would show me my path. I had no knowledge about cinema. However all my surroundings were filled with images and engravings, which just like a cinema screen portrayed the character of those far-off people in the land of Iran.

Then, my father bought me a hand-held camera. I don’t think he ever suspected what this forbidden fruit could do to me! My father disliked cinema and I think he still does! But I had tasted the forbidden fruit […] I made a film with that camera which featured at the IDFA in the same year. I became a filmmaker, despite the sighs and groans of my father, in a country called Iran. I had never been to film school. I had read very few books and had never seen the important films of the history of cinema. However, to be honest, since my father’s work had a lot to do with the farmers, I had seen much of common people. I have experienced hunger, felt pain and witnessed solitude. I have seen it all in reality, not in films!

What was the initial inspiration for My Mother, Oak?

The location - the town of Eizeh - is close to my birthplace. Nevertheless, it all started with the title in a newspaper: “Five thousand hectares of acorn trees have been submerged under water due to the construction of the biggest dam in the Middle East.”

As always whilst making a film, I spoke with Farid Daghagheleh. A long time had passed since that catastrophe. Farid and I decided to continue the film with the same interactive structure. Before I forget, let me say that Farid Daghagheleh is one of the greatest film editors of Iranian non-fiction cinema. Although we discovered much of the story on the set, we knew beforehand what we were doing and where we were going. The making took a year and half and we continued without a producer. We did not have a license either and we thought that at any moment the project could be interrupted. None of the authorities want to invest in environmentalist projects. Although no one here is really interested in such films, my wish is that the people of the world come to know what catastrophes happen in small and remote societies, and how their land is destroyed. My wish is not to win a prize, even if that would make a filmmaker happy too. But the important thing in documentary making is to give voice to those people and help them realize their dreams.

Art is sacred and I think I am successful if I am able to have an influence, even on just one person, in this great world. Even if this one person is no one but my father

One of the most impressive things in the film is the use of such cold colours. Why this choice?

Because of the winter, the colours were barely visible. So I simply decided to tone down the brightness even more, and stay with that atmosphere.

What are your next projects?

My next project is about a folklore singer in the south of Iran who recently passed away. His name is Bahman Aladin. This work is half-finished. I have another idea to make a film in my hometown, about a person called Farrokh who has opened an independent rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, with a group of his friends. He has many interesting stories there. For example, there are families who bring their relative there and say "he either gets better or he dies", and they give their consent that if the person dies, the centre will not be held responsible. Farrokh carries out strange, yet scientific and extremely difficult programmes without any medicine. There are people from 13 to 50 years old there.

Article by Marta Musso
Translation from Farsi by Sahar Delijani