Homayoun Asadian’s explanation in the meeting with the French ambassador;
The CEO of Khana Cinema explained about the latest status of follow-up on the demands of the cinema trade unions to remove the production license council and the presence of representatives of this body in the council, as well as the meeting with the French ambassador.
According to Saba’s report, since the process of issuing licenses for the production of cinematographic films has continued in the past weeks and no news has been released about the replacement of the representatives of the cinema house in this council, Homayoun Asadian announces the approval of the continued presence of the representatives of this trade body until the investigations are concluded.
In an interview, the CEO of Khana Cinema explained in this context: According to the understanding and conversation that took place with Mr. Dr. Salehi, the Minister of Guidance, and Mr. Tabatabainejad also announced it a few weeks ago, it was decided to form a working group to work on the construction permit in a certain period of time, and basically to modify its method and develop new regulations based on current conditions. In this regard, the second meeting of this working group was held on November 19, and we were also present in it, and the discussions are continuing.
Esadian pointed out that a period of about two months has been considered for this working group, and added: During this period, it has been approved that the previous representatives of Cinema House in the Construction Permit Council will continue their work. Although this issue was an understanding that was made with the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, it was not my personal decision or Mr. Asgarpour’s or any other person’s decision, but it is the decision of the Board of Directors of Cinema House, based on which we continue to interact and talk in this way.
He also explained the reason for his meeting with the French ambassador at the Cinema House, which has also become a sideshow: We have a movie screening program at the Cinema House, which is held in cooperation with the Cinema House and the Scientific Association of Comparative Art and Literature of Iran. What was held on November 13 was a continuation of the meetings that were previously held for the films “Odysseh” and “Bashu Gharibeh Kooch” where the films are analyzed from the point of view of semiotics and sociology and experts talk about them.
This week, the topic of the program was the new wave of French cinema, and Mr. Ruhollah Hosseini and Mr. Farzad Motaman were also present as experts. The French ambassador in Iran had expressed his desire to attend this meeting. We also invited him to the office for a few minutes and we talked about the new wave of French cinema and Iranian cinema. In fact, everything was at the level of greetings and reception etiquette, and no memorandum or agreement was made, and basically there was no discussion about it, because it was not supposed to happen at all. If we decide to hold a show about Italian neorealism cinema, the Italian ambassador may express interest in being there, the same thing may happen with Japanese cinema or any other country, and we will again invite them as a sign of respect and we welcome the presence of ambassadors in our specialized film meetings, but this does not mean negotiating or signing a memorandum of understanding.
