Trial by Moslem Mansouri

It is a debatable statement but sometimes true, that restrictions increase creativity. Imagine a small film crew, making 8mm fictions with no budget, in a village - Koshro, 20 km from Tehran. The director Ali Matimi works for a brick factory on weekdays. The film was made with the support of inhabitants, from acting to serving bread for the crew.

Matimi is a writer and director who has written 110 books and made 18 films in Koshro and its neighbouring region, distributing the books from hand to hand, and screening the films on a white sheet in a square of the village. These works defy the government, as they got no permission for shooting in a country which controls very strictly, through its own agencies, the films produced within its borders. In 1992 Matimi and his crew were arrested and were only released on the condition that they stop making movies. Trial, which gained success in some festivals, shows the last risk that the crew took, documented by fellow Iranian filmmaker Moslem Mansouri.

Matimi cuts the scenes using scissors, attaches them with scotch tape ; the cameraman shoots on a person’s shoulders or on a donkey ; the actresses argue with their families because they are acting in the film.

These facts all prove the passion they share, although at some points there are tensions and conflicts amongst the crew. In the final scene, when the screening of the last trial is interrupted due to a problem with the 8mm projector, children intervene with the shadows played by their hands. Children’s games are a serious matter ! But which film ending is it ?

Esra Demirkıran