"Climbing up 12 flights of stairs to Jafar Panahi's house felt like a pilgrimage for me"

KOLKATA: A third year Phd student of Jadavpur University - Sreemoyee Singh – met Iranian master Jafar Panahi when she went to Iran to work on “The National and the Translation in the Exile cinemas of Iran”. She lived in Tehran for three-and-a-half months. During this time, she also interacted with other Iranian makers including Khosro Sinai, Shirvani Mohammad and Kianoush Ayari. Today, Sreemoyee is screening a 16-minute cut of the documentary she had shot in Iran. Titled “Toward Happy Alleys/Be Kucheye Khoshbakht”, her Nandan 3 screening is part of the Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) under the Shorts and Documentaries section. Excerpts from a conversation with the director:What is “Towards Happy Alleys” about?The film is about artists in exile in Iran. It is about how, despite every day pressures and the problems of censorship, art leeks out and finds ways of expression. It majorly deals with filmmakers but also depicts how regular people in Iran also deal with such issues and figure out ways to live and express even in repressive spaces. It is a self-reflexive journey through the streets of Tehran, where the camera, sometimes hidden, sometimes apprehensive; arrives towards the consensual; trying to find faces and bodies of local citizens and artists in Tehran through the dichotomies of their everyday reality. This film is a short cut of a longer feature length documentary. I’m now sending this to different places to get funding.What was your impression of Iran when you went there?I was in Iran for three and half months. I had enrolled myself in an intensive Persian programme at the Tehran University. When I went there, it was quite a struggle. I didn’t know Persian and nobody spoke English. I had to conduct all my interviews in Persian. So there was a huge amount of struggle. But I learnt fast.Was shooting in Iran difficult?It is very problematic. One really can’t shoot in public spaces. So, there are many hidden camera sequences in buses. Then, there were times women asked me to stop. I found out ways to shoot secretively, switching on the roll button randomly in buses or while walking on streets. At first I was caught when a lady in a bus sternly asked me to stop. But I felt I was constantly negotiating. Eventually, people started trusting me and opened up to me.Where did you stay?In a dormitory. During the second half of my visit, I stayed at Farhad Kheradmand’s house. He acted in two films of Abbas Kiarostami.How safe was it for a single woman to stay in a dorm this way?It is quite safe. This dorm was only for women, and the area was very safe. However, the streets and cabbies are not very safe. I had three or four terrible experiences. Men have passed comments. A couple of times, they had tried to touch me as well. But I must say that the people are very helpful and extremely kind. I couldn’t have done so much had it not been for everyone helping me around. Of course, knowing the language really helped. So did being an Indian.How did that help?They love Indians, especially Bollywood and watch the same soaps as many here do. Besides, culturally there is a commonality. Looking at Tehran, its streets, the people and the alleys instilled a deep sense of dejavu in me. I felt I had already been here before. It was as if I was watching yet another film right before my eye. Only this time, everything was for real. The films I had seen had made the landscape familiar in many ways.Was Kiarostami alive when you went there?I had already completed two months in Iran. I knew then that I’d have to figure a way out to meet him. I knew he had been in Cuba conducting a workshop, but I was hoping he’d be back, at least before I exhausted my last few hundred tomans. Ali, my friend, promised to walk me till Kiarostami’s home. I decided to film the walk. A part of me knew he may not be back on time, and perhaps this was the closest I could get to reaching him. On the way to the friend’s home, we kept wondering if it would be polite to ring the bell directly and introduce myself or just slide a letter under his door.When we reached the house, I just stood still; marvelling at the simplicity in the placement of a pretty two storied house (covered entirely with green creepers) amidst tall buildings on either side. I asked Ali if he was inside. Not seeing his car around, Ali replied in the negative. I decided to write a perfect note and slide it under his door next day. But, it was too late already. Kiarostami was already hospitalised, after being diagnosed with intestinal cancer. So I could not meet Kiarostami but got to know a lot from Farhad. He had acted in Kiarostami’s “Life Goes On” and “Through the Olive Trees”.What did he say about Kiarostami?Farhad had just recovered from a heart transplant operation when he broke the news to me. I remember spending many afternoons with Farhad recounting memories of his days spent with Kiarostami. The most striking one was during the filming of “Life and Nothing more”. In the film, Farhad, enacting the role of the director, drives his son through the earthquake stricken region of Manjil in order to find out if the characters of his earlier film “Where is the Friends House?” are alive. Farhad recounted that all Kiarostami ever told him was he had to look really tense while driving through the barren streets. For achieving this, he decided to replace the car in which Farhad had practised driving for over a month with an absolutely different and uncomfortable one. Farhad freaked out since he was naturally very tense throughout the shoot. I learnt that all of Kiarostami actors had to go through severe mental stress during filming as he would break out the harshest news while filming, but later apologizing by showing them the final shots.How did you get to meet Jafar Panahi?I was trying to get in touch with Panahi for two months. I found out the office of “Film”, the popular film tabloid, and requested them to help me out. It took two months to get an appointment with Panahi. One afternoon while preparing for my final exam (which was due in two days), my phone rang. I saw “Jafar Panahi calling” and freaked out while figuring out in my mind about what to say to him in Persian during our first conversation. Finally he said, 'So, you are the girl from India. Let’s meet tomorrow then?’ I was extremely apologetic and said 'But sir, I have an exam day after. Can I meet you right after my exam?' I couldn’t believe I said this to him, and tried apologising in broken Persian. But we finally met after my final exam.What happened once you reached his house?Immediately after my Persian exam, I remember rushing with my camera and sound equipment from university to a sweet shop, getting a huge box of pastries and looking for his address. On reaching his gate, which I immediately recognised from his film “This is not a film”, I asked the gate keeper which floor he stayed in. He promptly said: “12th floor, Madam, but you will have to climb it. The lift is out of order!” Steadfast, I started climbing up, with heavy bags, anxious and panting. The climb almost felt like a journey, like a pilgrimage to reach his house. When I finally reached, I was greeted by his iguana, who literally ushered me in.Where did you film him?I filmed him inside his car, the same one in which he shot his last film “Taxi”. As he drove around the city of Tehran, he spoke of his childhood, his initiation into cinema, his early years and his constant tussle with the government which banned all his films after “Dayere/Circle”. Then he spoke about prison, and how they banned him for 20 years, and how it made him suicidal, and affected him till he finally broke free to later make “This is not a film”, “Closed Curtain” and finally “Taxi”. My film is full of these references and him talking.Are you in touch with Panahi now?I am in touch with him on and off. But there is no way to send him my film. All his emails are monitored. He knows that I am making a documentary and about this KIFF screening. He has been to KIFF too.