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“The Iranian cinema, which is a part of the rich identity and culture of Iran today, has been hunched under the sword of arbitrary censorship for years. It does not want and cannot bear another period of erosion, suffering from the spiritual and financial damages of illogical and boundless inspections of the radio and television organization, and repeating the failed experiences of such an organization. This is a warning for the future officials of the country in the government and the mentioned organization to not ignore it.”

We, as creators of cinema, believe that if any supervisory institution does not have clear, written and announced rules, and only relies on the relationship of the creators of the work with themselves, or on foreign and alien formulas with current realities in society, it can only confuse and demotivate the producers of the works; a demotivation that will result in the loss of hundreds of motivations and will damage thousands of opportunities for the activity of artists.

What you have read is part of the statement of the six cinema guilds of the country (1) which was issued in response to the decision of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution regarding the official transfer of supervision over the home theater network to the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. According to this decision, which was approved on June 20, 2023, by the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution under the leadership of Ebrahim Raisi, not only did IRIB take legal control over the home theater, but also the decisions of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution must be implemented and even the Islamic Consultative Assembly does not have the authority to cancel it.

Since the release of this news, not only did the cinema guilds officially protest by issuing a statement, but many artists including Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian, Iman Safa, Mehrab Ghasemkhani, Mohsen Kiaei, and Ali Shadman declared on their Instagram accounts that handing over the supervision of home entertainment to the state broadcasting organization is the “end of home entertainment”. These artists, who have a strong presence in television films, stated: “With the green light from the government, home entertainment has also fallen into the hands of the state broadcasting organization, which means a tsunami of censorship for artists and the end of people’s entertainment.”

Of course, the tastelessness of the mountain pact, the head of the radio and television organization, showed that a tsunami is truly on its way. He did not allow the ink of the resolution signed on June 20 to dry and immediately announced on Thursday, June 21, the drafting of the “Violation Regulations” for actors and online platforms. Jom-e Jam newspaper, which belongs to the radio and television organization, sharpened its pen to cut off at least the breath and freedom that existed in the productions of the home entertainment network and claimed in a report: “The series produced on the home entertainment network have taken the Iranian and Islamic culture and family values as their target and have led to the normalization and promotion of alcohol consumption, smoking, and drug use in society.”

The report of Jomhuri-e Eslami newspaper is another confirmation that the Islamic Republic government intends to tighten its censorship policies. Some cinema analysts have attributed the implementation of this decision to the support of some artists for the “Women’s Freedom Movement” in recent days in foreign media. In this issue of Khat-e Salam monthly, I had a conversation with Shahrām Alidi, director, screenwriter, and set designer.

Shahram Alidi, who has received several international awards in the field of acting and cinema, said in response to the question of what the main goal of the government is in officially handing over the supervision of the home theater network to the radio and television: “I strongly oppose it because the structure of television does not align with cinema and this is a mistake. In any management coherence we want to compare, the work of cinema is worlds apart from television, even in terms of technical structure and audience. Iranian cinema, even if it is full of criticism, has still made progress in terms of technical and managerial aspects compared to radio and television, and the reason for this is the presence of the cinema house and the cinema artists themselves. I must say that the cinema house is constantly evolving, meaning that for example, when we have a short film association, new energy and ideas are injected into it. Also, in cinema, there are categorized professions; we have stuntmen, makeup artists, etc

In the continuation of the conversation, this artist mentioned the series “Bitter Coffee” and the birth of home screenings, saying: “A dispute in preventing the broadcast of the series “Bitter Coffee” on television led to the release of the series on CD in supermarkets, which was well received by the people and had very good sales. This is how home screenings were born. You know, when a film is produced, it needs a place to be shown. In the past, we had to get all our equipment from a government-owned place (such as Farabi Cinema) and after production, we couldn’t show our 35mm film in a warehouse or a hall. And even when the digital system was introduced, we became independent in terms of equipment, but we still had problems with showing our films because all the halls were owned by government institutions. Even if there was a private hall, no director could independently sign a contract to show their film. The emergence of home screenings became a

Shahram Alidi emphasizes that the supervision of the national television over home productions is a disaster. He points out that censorship on television is much more prominent and says, “They are not allowed to show a scene where a little girl comes home from music class, goes to the corner of the room, takes out her flute and starts practicing; showing an instrument on television is prohibited and this scene must be censored. Of course, there are certainly relationships where even the voices of Abi and Dariush were broadcast in some home movies. In any case, they knew that people wanted this and it increased sales. But again, I say that entrusting the supervision of home productions to the national television means entrusting the work to those whose censorship and technology differs from the structure of cinema and will lead to failure.”

Mr. Alidi, who won the Best Actor award at the Amal Arab Euro Spain 2010 International Festival, continued by saying that self-censorship is prevalent in television and there is no room for creativity. He stated, “How can television comment on current cinematic works when it has destroyed its own little glimmer of hope? Television is self-censoring. For example, television knew that it was a single-engine plane and that Adel Ferdowsipour was the only engine, but they sidelined him. Television’s actions go against cinema. Even in the last moments when it seems like cinema is struggling, they can still be up-to-date and show themselves to the world. Our short to feature-length films were shown around the world and had something to say. I must say that television cannot create. They have a duty and their duty is to come and say this is it and that is not (censor it); they don’t even consult with intelligent people and as a

Shahram Alidi, who has experience participating in international festivals and is in contact with the modern film industry, pointed out a note that is intolerable for the Islamic Republic and the censorship authorities. He refers to the fact that in the war between censorship and technology, censorship is the loser. In such conditions, no one can remove an actor from a film because of the color of their eyes. According to Mr. Alidi, Ms. Sousan Taslimi had gone to the Ministry of Guidance to ask what their problem was with her, and they responded by saying that her eyes were provocative! Now, Sousan Taslimi has been working in Sweden for years and her eyes do not provoke anyone.

In another part of the conversation with Shahram Alidi, he emphasized that censorship has historical roots and should not be limited to after the 1957 revolution. He said, “We cannot limit censorship to just the five people sitting on a commission. Censorship exists within us and is not just a part of regulations. That is why we are stronger in our illusions and what relates to poetry. We must consider censorship in different historical periods of our country. Also, before the revolution, for the film “Gazelles”, Mr. Vosoqi would go through Mrs. Pouri Banai to talk to someone in the court to show the film through a pole. The film “Secrets of the Jinn Valley” by Mr. Ibrahim Golestan was also censored. From 1960 onwards, things became much more severe and I heard a quote from Mr. Behram Beyzai who was present at a meeting where they chanted slogans and he said, ‘I

We know that in addition to the issue of censorship and control over the production of cinematic content, the high sales of TV series and films in home entertainment are also important for the broadcasting organization. Although the budget for the broadcasting organization is provided by the government and people even pay for electricity and possibly water for the broadcasting organization, the income from the home network is also tempting. Shahram Alidi says in this regard: “You see, there is another hidden issue in the transfer of supervision of home network productions to the broadcasting organization, which is money; that is, economic control. You know that there is rent everywhere in our country’s system and it is more severe in cinema. The presence of non-cinematic individuals will definitely become more prominent. Just as they did something else when they wanted to weaken cinema. They came and launched a large number of TV films. They gave a lot of money and the trades could not have any income and went in that direction. Here, too, you

Note:

1- The Cinema Directors’ Guild (Directors’ Association), Producers and Directors of Cinema, Employers’ Association of Producers (EPA), Screenwriters’ Guild of Cinema, Iranian Cinema Designers’ Guild, and Sound Recordists and Sound Designers’ Guild of Cinema.