The Story of Shahrzad from the Perspective of Shahin Parhami

The Yi Helava documentary film festival, held annually in the Czech Republic, has concluded. This year, for the first time in Europe, a new Iranian documentary titled "The Story of Shahrzad" was screened over six days. Iranian director Shahin Parhami, residing in Montreal, traveled to Iran to film "The Story of Shahrzad," depicting the life of Kobra Saidi, an actress known as "Shahrzad" from pre-revolutionary films. She began her career at the age of 14 dancing in Tehran's cafes and later in theater, starring in films such as Ghaisar, Toghi, Dash Akol, Se Qap, Baba Shaml, Tangna, Pol, Panjereh, Eyali Var, and Gorg Bizar. She also directed the feature film "Maryam and Mani" and published three poetry collections. However, following the revolution, she was arrested and imprisoned, becoming marginalized in the official art world. Radio Farda began an interview with Shahin Parhami, asking why he chose to document Kobra Saidi's life in "The Story of Shahrzad." Shahin Parhami: "I was born and raised in Iran. I grew up watching Iranian films, especially Persian films that were always in theaters. Shahrzad was a very special character, a dancer in Persian films. At the age of fifteen or sixteen, I heard she was a poet too. I even saw one of her books somewhere. The contrast was striking. But I had no news of her until about five years ago when I read online that she was homeless. Shahrzad, who had written books and acted in fifty films, even wrote and directed one herself. She filmed some of her scenes. So far, the two places where Shahrzad has been shown were abroad. The reactions of foreign audiences to this film and Shahrzad's face have been very interesting for them. They become curious about the status of women in Iran. Most questions were about the situation of women in Iran. Another interesting point for them is seeing images from before the revolution, where such a strong character existed, who had so much art and talent and still has not lost hope despite all the problems and speaks out when in front of the camera. Especially the scenes they see from Iran and the images of Iranian pop culture are interesting for them, showing that it still exists in some form. It is true that it is not like the time of the Shah, but the young women who dressed and spoke back then are novel to them. This film is two hours and nine minutes long, longer than your previous films. Do you think the discussions about viewers' attention spans, which are said to be only five minutes longer now, have any meaning? Some say it is only two minutes longer, and some say it is only 45 seconds longer. Do you think this is irrelevant, or do you believe that for this specific film, two hours and nine minutes was appropriate? Well, these discussions do have meaning in a way for the current television and YouTube generation. Yes, we are not as patient now, especially the new generation cannot sit and watch a long film. But for this film, I saw no other way. Because we have a character who is extremely complex and has a long history from the time she starts her life, entering art as a teenager, witnessing the revolution, and then the aftermath, imprisonment, and so on. This character was complex, and I could not give a portrait of her in 40 or 50 minutes; I had to be patient myself and want the viewer to be patient and follow it. Unfortunately, the mindset now is that no one really has the patience for a long film. At the same time, there are documentaries in the serious, artistic, and creative documentary cinema that can even be 12 hours long. There are seven-hour films that sometimes are shown in series in theaters. Yes, unfortunately, long documentaries are not 'TV-friendly' and it rarely happens that televisions want to show these films unless you change the format to 60 or 50 minutes.