Mahdavian, director of political thrillers, to try his hand at comedy with “Shishlik”
TEHRAN –(Iranart)- Mohammad-Hossein Mahdavian, director of the political thrillers “Standing in the Dust”, “The Midday Event” and “Trace of Blood”, plans to try his hand at comedy genre with “Shishlik”.
Amir-Mehdi Juleh, writer of the popular comedy series “Pavarchin”, “Noqtechin” and “Barareh Nights”, will collaborate in this project that will be starring Reza Attaran, Pejman Jamshidi and Jamshid Hashempur, a public relations team announced on Friday.
Mohammadreza Mansuri is the producer of the film for which shooting will begin on June 28.
The 39-year-old Mahdavian began his professional career in 2013 with “Standing in the Dust” about the life story of Ahmad Motevasselian, an IRGC commander who was kidnapped by the Zionist regime in 1982 in Lebanon.
The film was critically acclaimed and won him awards at several events in his native country.
His passion for factual political stories from modern Iranian history was increasingly demonstrated in his second movie “The Midday Event” that recounts the terrorist activities of the Mojahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) in Iran in the 1980s.
Critics viewed his third movie “Lottery” as regressive. It was about the mafia trafficking Iranian women to the United Arab Emirates.
Afterwards, Mahdavian returned to his origin with “Trace of Blood”, a sequel to “The Midday Event”. In this film, Iranian security forces come together in 1988 to trace the MKO’s undercover agents, which had penetrated the security forces in 1982. They also want to foil Operation Eternal Light, which the MKO carried out against Iran with the full support of the Iraqi dictator, Saddam.
His latest movie “Walnut Tree” premiered at the 38th edition of the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran in February. The drama based on the true story of the profound tragedy of Iraq’s chemical attack on the Iranian town of Sardasht in 1987 brought him the Crystal Simorgh for best director.
Despite his skills in transforming real political narratives into films, he has earlier indicated his desire to try his hand at other genres.
“There is no time to lose; life is too short and I haven’t made a lot of films. Certainly, I will try other genres—I don’t know when—but I want to try something different,” he said.
“I even wanted to make a film for children, because whenever we intend to take our children to the cinema, we can’t find films entertaining enough for children,” he lamented.
source: Tehran Times