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SXSW 2022

Faeze Azizkhani • Director of The Locust

“I watched so many films and found out how everyone could tell their own stories…”

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- In this Iranian-German drama, a female scriptwriter faces many obstacles while trying to stay true to her original idea

Faeze Azizkhani  • Director of The Locust

At this year’s SXSW, Iranian director Faeze Azizkhani presented her second feature film The Locust [+see also:
film review
interview: Faeze Azizkhani
film profile
]
, which deals with the difficulties of being a woman and a filmmaker in Iran. We talked to the director about being tenacious in pursuing one's own projects and her commitment to cinema.

Cineuropa: How autobiographical is your film?
Faeze Azizkhani:
To a large extent… How is it possible for me to narrate a story out of the domain of the stories I’m living in? I believe most independent filmmakers do it in their own ways. At least, I hope that they do proceed like this. Of course we build the whole structure of the story, but we have no choice but to furnish them with some stories taken from our own lives.

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You talk about tradition, family and especially the role and status of women in society. How much do you feel the weight of it in your professional life? 
All of these issues define the culture in the territory I’m living in as a woman. This culture has some strong points, in that I’ve learnt to make and tell the stories. On the other hand, it has some weak points, making a woman like Hanieh, the central character in the film, think of a small push for falling off the roof – hesitantly, of course.

Both because I am a woman and because I am different, in a way where I can’t surrender to the current mainstream, I’m ignored. I even feel that some people insist on my absence, on my passivity. In our society, they have their own suggestions for someone like me: to make an ordinary choice, to obey, to forget about my own ideas, to give birth to children and nothing more. So I am obliged to hide the lump in my throat day by day as I’m expected to swallow my pride… All of it happens because it is the accepted instruction in the culture we are talking about.

Was it difficult to find the right actors?
For me, casting is not a matter of appearances. It is vital to have some emotional experiences in common with the actors. In this way, the actors are selected early and we need some time to find each other. Of course, sometimes the film economics and the countless problems of filmmaking make the director forget about her favourite choices – especially in our country, where officials are constantly talking about economics and ideology and omitting the alternative movements. 

Personally, thinking of any project, I prefer to work with some unknown, fresh performers in the first place. I did it in my debut feature film, For a Rainy Day. But thinking of the necessities of the film industry, I’m happy that I’ve also experienced working with some prominent actors on The Locust

Which were the most important aspects for the aesthetics of the film?
For me, one of the most important aspects was to harmonise the camera movements with the frustration of the characters. The other one was to move towards a nondescript, confused production design in a vicious circle inside a small, suffocating location from which no one can escape. These are all done to move forward with the storyline and depict the mentality of the character.

Do you have specific filmmakers and authors who inspire you?
Undoubtedly, yes. There are a lot of filmmakers who influenced me with their works. My dad told me a lot of stories and took me into the world of fiction. I learned to fall in love, to be happy and to be saddened with his stories. In his stories, there was always a prince and a mermaid, a rich man and a poor man, a hero and a villain. Then I discovered how my beloved teacher, Abbas Kiarostami, was able to tell a story with two pieces of wood, how Federico Fellini could make a story out of the confusion and bewilderment of a storyteller, how Akira Kurosawa was able to shape his stories with a fatherly approach, how Robert Bresson needed few materials to tell his minimalist stories… so I watched so many films and found out how everyone could tell their own stories…

Which were the biggest challenges for the production of the film?
Disbelief in a filmmaker who does not follow the familiar patterns, who tries to look like no one else, who hopes not to be labelled as a second copy of another director. When you’re not a well known director, everyone looks at you with distrust. And at last, when an independent producer trusts you, she inevitably must think of the return of capital. So there is a small budget and little time to finish the shoot. But after four years of coming to a dead-end and failure in making another script, I made up my mind to direct my second film as a small budget production. Hanieh, the main character of my film, decided to sell her script. I, on the contrary, went on with my project relying solely on the capacity of cinema. That’s all.

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