By John Wildman
AFI FEST Daily News Staff

NILOOFAR
9:30 p.m. Saturday, November 1 @ ArcLight 9
Noon Monday, November 3 @ ArcLight 8.
Sabine El Gemayal will attend both screenings and will participate in a Q&A afterward.

Sabine El Gemayal (NILOOFAR)

A young Lebanese girl begins to discover her potential through education when her father delivers his own lesson in how their society judges a girl’s worth by “trading” her to a local sheik for a parcel of land. However, the title character in NILOOFAR does not go quietly as the genie has already been let out of this particular bottle.

Sabine El Gemayal’s directorial debut is an assured piece of filmmaking that has as much on its mind as Niloofar does—questioning, dreaming for something better, and refusing to take a well-worn route to the point it is trying to make. What makes El Gemayal’s film soar is that she refuses to demonize the men (or the women who serve as their accomplices) even as they do and plan to do their worst. She simply holds them up to the harsh light of day in comparison to those who refuse to accept an unkind fate being handed to them without question.

1 Niloofar’s happiness comes from the books she is learning from and the new world of possibilities that open up to her. Those same things directly threaten the tenuous hold the men in her village have on that very same world. Does the film reflect what you see as a tide that continues to rise in the favor of education and the independence of women in that part of the world?

In a way, it is encouraged for girls to seek education and personal freedom, but there is still a very long way to education becoming a right.

In Iran, like in Iraq, almost all villages have elementary schools. The difficulty in remote areas is for secondary schools. For instance, the small city nearby will have an elementary school for boys and girls. However, this would require the girls to take the bus to school. And that is the problem because girls become exposed to others and their honor might be soiled. So parents who disagree with their teenage daughter pursuing her education are actually acting from a place of wanting to protect their daughter from predators or unforeseen events that would soil their honor and prevent them from getting married. Girls also face the prospect of early marriage and, once married, their chances for education and independence decreases.

Poverty is the other reason for lack of education; all family members are expected to do what they can to bring home an income—so this means that children are often taken out of school. Girls must do the household chores and look after younger siblings while boys run errands and do odd jobs to earn money. As a result of poverty, education is considered a luxury.

No wonder, getting an education is more interesting than house chores!

As a teenager, the forbidden becomes an irresistible desire, and girls want to get educated, ask for it and have pleasure just by getting it even if they end up staying home. In the upper class society, this happens in a more subtle way. Girls graduate because education is a sign of wealth, but many get married and end up staying at home raising their children. I guess this is why motherhood is valued in a beautiful and respectful way in the Middle East.

As traditional attitudes start to change, fathers will start to see the value of education and will agree to their daughters’ [pursuit of an] education.

2 What are some of the challenges you faced as a woman directing a film in Iran?

The challenge of making a film in Iran came more from being a Western woman more than from being a woman. Educated women in Iran have powerful and significant job positions. It may not be as easy as a man to get these positions but it is certainly much easier than in other countries such as Saudia Arabia, Afghanistan and so forth. As any first time director, the crew tests the director’s knowledge and limits, and once his/her skills are established and respected, the crew dedicates itself to the project and the director. In this case, the fact that I lived in Hollywood gave me an immediate respect that I maintained because I knew what I was doing so they embarked in my journey. I was respectful of the crew members’ work and have a respectful way of working so we had a great relationship and the male crew members acted like my bodyguards against the villagers who were fascinated and intrusive to have a foreign blonde woman with blue eyes in their rural environment. They were protective as if I was their sister of something in some cases!

The news portrays a negative image of the Muslim world so the Iranian authorities were concerned that a woman foreigner like me might give a negative image of their country where in fact there is no crimes of honor in Persian population. There are some in Kurdish, Balushestan and Arab communities based in Iran. So I had to convince them that the film was a humanistic film and a universal story.

I couldn’t travel alone for location scouts because women cannot get hotel rooms without their husband’s, father’s or male authority figure’s authorization. I was always depending on a man because of that and also because of the language that I didn’t master at first. Although I am familiar with that cultural co-dependency, it was hard for me at times.

3 Describe some of the other gender issues you experienced on the set and how you overcame them to make the film?

The significant gender issue that comes to my mind is directing actors as a female. I don’t think a man in such a country would have been able to get the performance I got from the girl, because as a woman, as a mother, I was able to create a special relationship with Mobina and talk about womanly issues. The crew was amazingly open to shoot some scenes that could be uncomfortable for men, like the birth scenes. The difficulty lay in working with the girl for her to be natural in these scenes. A lot of times, I asked to have a closed set so there would be fewer people and we could be more intimate.

Another gender issue was that men were in one hotel and women in another 45 minutes away. My DP and my first AD stayed in my hotel for three weeks, but then it became too difficult for them to not have a social life and be confined in a hotel room so they moved to the men’s hotel. Then I had no creative interaction with them. Most of my interaction was with men, so it was difficult for me to be in the women’s hotel. The boy’s acting maybe wasn’t as strong as it might have been, in my opinion, and I partly attribute that to the logistics since I physically was not able to spend time with him to get him more comfortable with his body in front of the camera. When it came time to rehearse with Shahab Hosseini (Uncle Aziz) and Amir Aghai (Sheikh Abbas), I had to go to the men’s hotel. The management was against it so the receptionist asked if I could come only at certain times so he wouldn’t get in trouble. He did that not because of me but because of Shahab Hosseini’s notoriety!

4 What is the best thing about having your film at AFI FEST?

On a personal note, I live up the road and I don’t have to travel. I am a mother of three young children, so any traveling arrangement for the film is a challenge emotionally and logistically.

I have been attending the festival for the last 8 years. A film I edited, THE OLIVE HARVEST, screened at AFI FEST in 2003. Over the years I find that the festival is getting better and better. It is a festival with a good selection and is well attended by locals. The fact that AFM is at the same time gives a unique opportunity to filmmakers to make industry related connection. In fact, AFI FEST offers fantastic opportunities to filmmakers in that sense through their Connect program.

5 Niloofar’s mother tells her “All you need in life are your hands and your intuition.” You have three children. What would you tell them that would be equivalent to that statement

Trust yourself. You need to Be to find the answers within you.

6 What should a director do that they never think of until it’s too late?

You get to a point when you shoot where, because of time or money or any number of reasons, you are forced to cut scenes out that you thought were essential to the story. As you direct the other scenes, you realize that the information has passed and may become redundant. So I would suggest to know in advance the scenes you can compromise before you shoot, but don’t say it to anyone whether it’s your AD or your producer because then they would cut the scene out before you even get a chance to think it through. Know your options so when you have to make a decision, you don’t make a hasty one but a well thought out one.

7 Much of the plot mechanics of the film turn on the concept of “honor.” In fact, the sheik that has been promised he would marry Niloofar has a true moment of introspection over the fact that traditionally they place the idea of honor over that of someone’s life. Was there a temptation to go another more “black and white” route with how the men deal with this concept early in conceiving this story?

At that moment, the Sheikh says: “I still don’t know if it’s better to end a life for honor’s sake or live with dishonor.” I believe nothing is black and white in real life. Most people even if they commit this kind of crime go through an emotional turmoil and choose to do what they believe is the right thing in their cultural environment. But there heart might tell them another thing. They are bound by tradition and what is expected of them. I believe most have doubts about such an act at one point or another but they don’t allow themselves to express it. The dominant paradigm is that men are not supposed to be emotional, so they act as if they aren’t. I am fascinated by the world of emotions, and I wanted to show that every human being, regardless of their gender, are emotional beings. I didn’t want this film to be a feminist film with no regards to men, because in the same way that women’s rights are a constraint, men’s right are as well. They are forced to behave a certain way and grow as unemotional perpetrators of old traditions… In the same way I didn’t want women to be victimized as they often seem to be in the media so I had the mother in the film be a strong headed women who is actually supporting the concept of honor in a more verbal way then her husband who loses his means.

8 If you couldn’t make films, what would be your second career choice?

Humanitarian/charity work out on the field.

9 What was the last film that made you cry? Laugh out loud?

THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY from Julian Schnabel. I’m not a comedy fan. The last film that made me smile was LES CH’TITS, a French film.

10 Popcorn or candy?

Candy.

DVD EXTRA

You state that it took 53 days to shoot the film in Iran when it would have only taken 35 days to shoot it in France or the U.S. What’s going on with the concept of time in the Middle East?

The Middle East doesn’t have the same concept of time. They surrender to how the day goes by. It is much healthier from a spiritual standpoint, because they go with the flow of life or God’s will, for some. It is embedded in the culture. From a business standpoint it is sometimes unsettling because in the West, Time is Money. In the East, Time is just Time. It is certainly less stressful and more enjoyable.

In regards to the shoot, the crews are smaller and some crew members have more than one responsibility. The Gaffer was also the 1st AC and the focus puller. But the main difference is that they don’t really have a production manager or coordinator that focuses on only managing the set. It is the line producer who was also location manager and the first AD who managed it. But because they are busy with their own job responsibility and don’t have a coordinator some essentials are disregarded until it is too late and the set is on hiatus until whatever the need is, is provided or fixed.