Iranian film biz under siege

Officials at Iran's ministry of culture are encouraging the country's filmmakers and technicians to move away from the bigscreen and plough their trade in TV with offers of increased salaries and promises of greater artistic freedoms, according to sources in the country.

New policy was announced days before the Fajr Intl. Film Festival, which unspooled Feb. 1-8. Fajr is traditionally the barometer of Iranian cinema any given year.

"It's a way of dismantling cinema," said one Iranian filmmaker who disagreed with the policy and insisted on anonymity. "They can control everything once it goes to TV, because with cinema you have to deal with so many different people and groups. They can do what they want with a project now in terms of censorship, whereas on film, even it doesn't get the clearance to screen, the power of final cut remains with the producer."

The Iranian film biz remains the most industrious in the Middle East, producing an average of 70-80 features a year, even if it has lost the position of world cinema favorite it enjoyed throughout much of the 1990's when Iranian pix were regularly selected for major film fests.

While Iranian helmers have often had to content with shortages when looking to raise coin for new productions, in recent months Iran's state broadcaster has been ramping up its TV budget. In April last year, "Zero Degree Turn" -- a big-budget skein about the unlikely friendship that occurs between an Iranian boy and Jewish girl in Europe against the backdrop of Word War II -- proved a big hit with Iranian auds.

Several other TV blockbusters are planned with seven-figure budgets, including biopics about the lives of Jesus and Joseph, are in the pipelines.

One unintentional side-effect of the film biz cutbacks has been to bring together different Iranian helmers, regardless of their political affiliation.

"You used to have filmmakers who were right wing and those who were left wing but now they've joined up, having meetings and talking together. That's not a bad thing," said an Iranian filmmaker.