The Fajr Film Festival is one of the most interesting events that has been organized by the Islamic Republic. As you know, the Islamic Revolution in Iran aimed to transform all cultural, political, and social aspects, and in this process, cinema was one of the main targets for destruction and annihilation. It is not meaningless to mention that many cinemas were burned down and destroyed during the Islamic Revolution, while theaters and art galleries were not affected. It is enough to remember the famous statement of Ayatollah Khomeini, which he explicitly stated on February 1, 1979, in Behesht-e Zahra: “Our cinema is a center of corruption, we are not against cinema, we are against the center of corruption.” It was natural that this “center of corruption” should be shut down as soon as possible, and it did. During the early years of the revolution, the number of film productions in Iran almost reached zero and most filmmakers became unemployed and housebound.

Perhaps it may be hard for the audience to believe, but the fate of Iranian cinema after the revolution was shaped by these very events. Otherwise, it was not clear what would have happened to this industry. If you don’t believe it, just look at the state of cinema in Afghanistan under Taliban rule and don’t forget that Iran, after the revolution, was not much different from the current Taliban regime. As they say nowadays, “We had our own Taliban in the 60s, when Taliban wasn’t even a thing yet!”

In any case, this statement by Ayatollah Khomeini caused the cultural officials of the Islamic Republic to take action and launch the revolutionary cinema of Iran, allocating a portion of the country’s budget to produce films in accordance with the taste of the Islamic Republic. Now that the revolutionary cinema had begun, it was necessary to hold a revolutionary film festival to replace the pre-revolutionary Tehran festivals, which were attended by renowned filmmakers such as Peter Sellers, Antonioni, William Wyler, Bert Hanstra, Liliana Cavani, Lina Wertmuller, and Nikita Mikhalkov.

The Fajr Film Festival was born in 1982 and in its first year, it awarded prizes to a number of revolutionary filmmakers who had made beginner and low-budget films about the revolution and war. Until 1987, the festival’s awards were given in the form of golden plaques and certificates of appreciation, but from the seventh edition (1988), the Crystal Simorgh was awarded as the festival’s prize to the winners.

One of the interesting and amusing aspects of this festival was the composition of its jury, which in its early years was always chosen from within the revolutionary comrades so as not to award a prize to a non-comrade filmmaker and cause controversy. Even more interesting was the constant and repetitive presence of several cinema directors in the jury. For example, Seifollah Dad was a permanent member in five cycles (first, third, seventh, eighth, and tenth), Manouchehr Asgari-Nasab in four cycles (second, fifth, eighth, and ninth), Mohammad Ali Najafi in four cycles (second, third, sixth, and ninth), Mohammad Karimian in four cycles (fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth), and Javad Shamghadri in three cycles (twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth). The most amusing part is that someone like Seifollah Dad, who holds the record for the most number of times being a member of the jury

Interesting and amusing events have also taken place in the field of award-giving in this festival. For example, in 1986, as one of the most attractive editions, three important Iranian filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami, Nasser Taghvai, and Dariush Mehrjui, were present in the Iranian Cinema Competition section with their films “Where Is the Friend’s Home?”, “Nakhoda Khorshid”, and “The Tenants”. The award for Best Film was given to “Flight in the Night” directed by Rasoul Mollagholipour.

Or in the year 68, despite the presence of “Hamoon” (Dariush Mehrjui) and “Close-Up” (Abbas Kiarostami) in the competition section, the award for best film was given to “The Immigrant” directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia.

In addition, in the year 71, despite the presence of brilliant films such as “Sara” (directed by Dariush Mehrjui) and “Shame” (directed by Kiumars Pourahmad), the award for best film is given to a vulgar and slogan-filled film called “From Karkeh to Rayen” (directed by Ebrahim Hatamikia).

This list is very extensive and interesting. It is worth noting that, for example, in 1970, the screenplay for the film “Travelers” (by Bahram Beizaei) was not even among the nominees for Best Screenplay, or in 1980, the film “Blank Paper” (by Nasser Taghavi) was completely overlooked and the awards that year were given to “I Have a Song Fifteen Years Old” by Rasoul Sadr Ameli and “A House on Water” by Bahman Farmanara. Perhaps the most amusing thing is that in 1982, no attention was paid to one of the best films of that period, “Beautiful City” (by Asghar Farhadi), and the award for Best Film was given to “Duel” (by Ahmadreza Darvish), and the award for Best Screenplay was given to the plagiarized and flawed script “MarMoolak” by Peyman

It’s also worth knowing that “Bahram Beizai” has never received the Crystal Simorgh for Best Director from this festival, despite being one of the most prominent filmmakers in Iranian cinema, and none of his films have been chosen as the best film of the Fajr Film Festival.

Now that we’re talking about awards, it’s worth mentioning the cash prizes of the Fajr Festival. Every year, alongside the prestigious Crystal Simorgh award, a certain amount of money is also given to the winners in the form of Bahar Azadi coins or cash, to serve as motivation for them to attend the closing ceremony. It should be noted that sometimes, the prize for a Hajj trip is also given to the winners, which unfortunately is not always used by them and is instead sold in the free market, causing them to suffer financial losses.

But in one of the festivals, it seemed that the organizers had taken a bribe, a sedan and a Pride car were given to the winners, and interestingly, almost a year after the prizes were given, no car was delivered to the unlucky winners and they were left empty-handed. Since everything in this festival had to be fair, a random procurement manager working in Iranian cinema had taken advantage of this situation and, by contacting the owners of the car bribe, had pocketed a large amount of money from them, claiming to have connections in the Ministry of Industries and being able to arrange for the delivery of the cars.

The Fajr Film Festival, alongside these amusing adventures, also had its benefits. For example, in the 1970s when there was no opportunity for us – as eager cinema students – to see many masterpieces of cinema, the festival’s side events provided the opportunity to see, despite the brutal censorship, films of French poetic realism such as works by Marcel Carné, Jean Cocteau, Jean Renoir, and Julien Duvivier. Or a review of the works of Carl Theodor Dreyer, the famous Danish filmmaker, or Ingmar Bergman and Kurosawa, which was a priceless gift for us in the 1970s when there was no news of DVDs and it was difficult to find such films on VHS tapes. Although sometimes the screening of these films also had amusing incidents due to the specific management style of the Islamic Republic, for example, we were forced to watch an Italian, Russian, or French film without English subtitles and had to

Let’s move on from these stories and get to the recent editions of the Fajr Film Festival. I remember one of the controversies of every festival was when the names of the films in the Iranian Cinema Competition section were announced, and it brought disappointment to many filmmakers whose films were not selected for this section. Compare this to the current edition of the festival (1401), where there was a competition among Iranian filmmakers due to the absence of films, and most of those who had films in this year’s festival protested and blamed the producers of their works for their films not being included in the festival. I have also heard that they had contacted many filmmakers who were busy making films and had asked them, with threats and promises, to fill out the festival participation form.

Unfortunately or fortunately, the Islamic Republic has fallen into a time where it is forced to bend over backwards for its government festivals. Compare this to past decades where the fight was over participating in festivals or unfair and government-controlled distribution of awards, not competition over not participating in the Fajr Film Festival.

The cycle of time is such that now an independent filmmaker named “Kaveh Mazaheri” stands behind his mobile camera and throws two Simorghs of the festival that he had brought home in previous periods into the river.

According to Saif Farghani:

«

May death also pass over your world.

May your time also pass with prosperity.

In the country, as the roar of lions passed and went.

Let this madness of yours pass as well.

The person who had a horse, his dust settled.

“May the poison of your enemies also pass.”»

Apparently, the glory of the government festival of the Islamic Republic has fallen before its own glory. It may not be in vain that the government filmmaker, with vulgar literature, in a live television broadcast, speaks of the menopause of female filmmakers, and the head of the radio and television also supports her instead of apologizing. These are all the result of an angry and irrational attitude, once again showing the instrumental view of the Islamic Republic towards women. A view that considered the physical and natural menopause of women as a document for their humiliation, while the intellectual and cultural menopause of the Islamic Republic has been evident and obvious since its inception, and has not achieved anything for this country except destruction and ruin.