Filmed entirely on a phone, Abdolreza Kahani's Mortician tells the story of the meeting between a singer in exile and a mortician working in Canada - with a strong bond emerging as the narrative progresses. Long takes of snowscapes where desolate people and cabins stand out fill the screen, with deeper political messages of nationality and hope buried deep beneath the snow...
I watched your film last year, A Shrine, and I talked to some of you as well. I was wondering how this film compared to the last film.
Kahani:
The thing they have in common is that A Shrine empowered me to make another film with my phone - with this technology.
It was kind of an experimental project for me. Maybe I didn't even want to release it, but when I realised it's been received well, I decided to release it. And this time with this film, I did it with more attention. It was mission-ful, with more power into it.
Okay, there's a single difference between the two films. They were filmed by different mobile phones, different brands, but I'm not going to mention the name because they haven't paid me, so I'm not going to advertise for them.
Another difference! I made A Shrine with my own phone, but this film was made by Nima's phone.
And Nima - how was it playing such a different character from last time?
Nima:
Actually, he worked with me a lot before we started shooting. To me as an actor, I like the difference. And with his help, it was okay. I wish I could do what is in his head.
And there was a big contrast between the mortician and music. Why were these important elements? A mortician is about death whilst music, most people associate it with life and living.
Gola:
When they approached me with this project they were like, we know your story as a singer in exile. Most of my songs are about freedom, problems in Iran, poverty, women, limitations - and how female singers cannot sing in Iran. I immediately said yes because I wanted this project to bend towards each other.
Mortician on one side, is about people who are hired by the Iranian regime outside of. They work and they don't know they hired by the irate regime, but they are working for them and they are living peacefully. At the same time, we are people like us outside of Iran who are against and opposite to the regime with music. Music is supposed to bring love and joy and unity. And I think my protest music has been always doing the same thing.
So I think these two come together with one common thing that we are both human, right? Sometimes we are played with, sometimes we are fighting for the truth, both of us, not knowingly. Sometimes, it's life and death. In his life, it's life and death, like he's dealing with the death. And in my life, also I'm dealing with death because i'm thinking about killing myself.
I'm musician and at the same time I have hope, rage, anger, I all of those emotions and I think that's when the music comes because music conveys all of those emotions and a musician is supposed to be free to sing, is supposed to express herself freely while outside of Iran she cannot do that, right? So I think there are so many things in common they have.
That's why they meet at the end and I think it's very important. The very last point is that we realize he's not even safe. I mean we thought Jana is not safe but he's even not safe, you know. I think that's why, what they have in common and that's why their stories is important to evolve into each other.
Mojan:
It wasn't death, it was terror. They kill her. And it was like when we're contrast between picture and music. When we saw they kill her, it's like view. We saw it's sad. But when music involved to the picture, it's gonna touch our heart. The music helped to the picture to touch it by heart and our brain is going to understand what's going on on the film if there is not music, we have a picture under the picture to show it.
It means just we see what's going on, what's happened with music. Our soul is going to be involved with it. I have a question you. What happened when music, because music brings love and hope, but death is a death, it's something that will die. What happened when these
Kahani:
Jana is a symbol of life, right? Although she's thinking about committing suicide or taking her own life, she's a symbol of life. She's fighting for life. On the other hand, Mojtaba is the same. His job is to bury death because of the living, so that those who are living can be happy that their dead family member is safely buried.
So they are both doing something for the living, for hope, for life. And that's how they relate to each other.
And would you say it's a more political film than last time?
Kahani:
Yes Absolutely
I generally don't like to say the message of the film. I believe that the message or the messages of the film is buried in the layers of the film. And I would like the audience to watch it and then itcomes from the heart of the film. The message comes from the heart of it. I don't know what to say as a slogan like this is message of the film. That's not what I did.
I'm not a speaker, I don't want to make speeches, I'm a filmmaker, I'm an artist, so I would like to visually convey the message. So it's really hard for me to say, what is the message of the film?
And in the film there are lot of like, snowscapes. What was it like shooting in those situations where it's all white and it's quite hard to film?
Mojan:
Believe me, my knees were stone.
Gola:
It was very difficult of course. At the same time I'm saying it's like very very freeing because we were moving with one car, was only four of us, we were moving with one car, finding a location. We would see like, okay where is it gonna suit this location, what are we doing here, how we gonna film this here? And then we would do one or two takes and then suddenly with the footsteps we would realise, okay no, the landscape had changed now, let's get into the car and find another location - find the next beautiful place and record it.
Of course it was cold, was very difficult, it time consuming, but at the same time was very freeing. And we had all the lights as well, they had to drive, especially these two, and Mojtaba as well. I was sometimes at the location, but these people had to drive back and forth, one hour and a half every day. Obviously we were fighting the light also.
Kahani:
When I make a film, it doesn't matter if it's cold or hot, I just go in the walls of film and I create. In fact, under the shrine, Nima laid on the snow and I forgot to tell him "cut". He was laying there on the snow because he was in his thought and he was continuing to make the film while he was naked on the snow.
Nima:
Sometimes we lost the power of the battery because it's too cold minus 40. So back to the car connected. Even in the cabin that we were filming it was really cold and I remember we were heating up everywhere by turning on the cook or the kettle just to make sure. Broken house, windows, it's not... It's not isolated, it's not insulated.
Gola:
Yeah, mean, there were just two little heaters that warm us up for the next stop or next take. But it was lovely, you we became a family and we have stuck together ever since, which is really beautiful.