Mohsen Makhmalbaf and a still from the movieIranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The Nights of Zayandeh-rood, which was screened on Tuesday at the IFFK, has a unique tale to tell – not the plot of the movie but about censorship hazards it faced.
In 1990, the Islamic nation's censors had asked the acclaimed director to cut 25 minutes to consider it for granting permission to screen it.
The director refused to budge, but the censors themselves cut those 25 minutes without the consent of the director.
The film was finally premiered in the Fajr Film Festival and despite the cuts that the censor board imposed, the audiences cheered the movie, which visualizes the travails the citizens would have to face under a rigid Islamic state.
The acclaim which the film received irked the authorities again. The censors then demanded a further 12 minutes cut, which was again declined by Makhmalbaf.
The authorities then did those cuts themselves which resulted in the original 100-minute movie shrinking further, but after further pressure from hardline elements in Iran, it was consigned to the archives.
The authorities never wanted any screening of the film anywhere in the world.
The film’s negative was stolen from archives in 2016 and the director has never divulged how that happened. It was later screened in Venice film fete.
Makhmalbaf fled Iran after the persecution he suffered in 2005 and now lives in Paris.
