Iranian Directors Banned From Traveling to Berlinale Talk ‘Crossing All the Red Lines’ in ‘My Favourite Cake’
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Iranian director duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha were recently banned by Iranian authorities from traveling to this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where their drama “My Favourite Cake” is premiering in competition.
The film is about a 70-year-old woman named Mahin who has been living alone in Tehran ever since her husband died and her daughter left for Europe. Suddenly an incident prompts Mahin to break her solitary routine and revitalize her love life. The directors have a history with the Berlinale, where their previous work, “Ballad of a White Cow,” premiered in 2021 with the directors in tow.
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They spoke to Variety via Zoom from Tehran about the increased crackdown against filmmakers in their country.
What have Iranian authorities done to prevent you from coming to Berlin?
Behtash Sanaeeha: Actually, it all started six months ago when security guards raided our editor’s place. They took all the hard drives and computers and everything related to the film. And after a few days, they called us and summoned us to the offices of security forces, where we [underwent] lots of interrogations about the film and they pushed us to stop making it. To stop working on the post- production. But we told them that the film [materials] were not in Iran. That the materials they found in Iran were just the skeleton of the project and that we were doing all the post outside Iran, in France. So they started a court case against us that is still pending. Then, a couple of months later, when we wanted to leave Tehran to go to Paris to finish the post, they confiscated our passports at the airport. Now the interrogations continue and we didn’t get the permission to come to Berlin.
“My Favorite Cake” was clearly made in Iran. Was it shot with permits from Iranian authorities?
Maryam Moghaddam: Actually we got a permit to shoot a short film. For all [Iranian] filmmakers who are trying to find a way to shoot their [feature] film, the most important thing is the shooting permit that is given by the police and the Ministry of Islamic Culture. So they all get some kind of permission for a short film, or a documentary or something. That’s how we were able to shoot.
Sanaeeha: We sent them a script for a short directed by other people, not by us.
Talk to me about the submission process to the Berlin Film Festival. I imagine it came as a surprise to Iranian authorities.
Moghaddam: Yeah, for sure. They didn’t want the film to be in Berlin, the most political film festival in the world. So they pushed us to stop it, but actually it was not something that we could do. And honestly, we didn’t want to because it’s a great honor for a filmmaker to be in the big festival like Berlin. So they pushed and they are still pushing. But actually it’s not something that’s in our hands. The decision was made by the sales agent and the producers.
Why do you think “My Favorite Cake” rubbed Iranian authorities the wrong way?
Sanaeeha: It crosses all the red lines they’ve had in [Iran] for the past 45 years: Like mandatory hijab; like drinking alcohol; like dancing for women. It has everything that is forbidden for women and that is not allowed to be shown in the movies. Everything. This is a story with characters that people all over the world can identify with. It’s about life. It’s about death and life and love and isolation. But it crosses all the red lines in Iran.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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