Director's statement

The content of the film “The Other” is around the subject of censorship in our country’s cinema and theater. Every individual can sense censorship in very many different ways whether in their jobs or elsewhere, but it is felt much more significantly in the world of cinema and theater.

The script was co-written by us and the idea for the film was born when Parastoo Noori, co-writer and the actress of the film, had an unsuccessful experience in one of her previous projects because of censorship and I too as a director could relate, we had all had such experiences before. So, we decided to write a script about censorship and I would be the director. We tried to present this idea in two personal ways during the script-writing.

The first way is showing the character still struggling with their previous roles in the projects that were failed because of censorship, this experience is pretty common among all actors and could have major impacts in their lives and careers. The second way is much more personal, and it is about my mourning experience after losing a friend. And my purpose was showing the inability of the character for mourning over the loss of their last role and character, and not being able to deal with the absence of the previous role which is felt like a commanding spirit, impacting all their decisions.

The film starts when we realize that the character has lost their last role and still deals with mental difficulties about it and the current situation of the character is seen while rehearsing the new project which is also a victim of censorship and the director has to give in and the female character has no other choice than also accepting the censorship. During the film we witness the presence of the actor’s previous character (Electra) having significant yet invisible effects on the actor’s personal and professional life. The reason as to choosing the character (Electra) is that in the real life of the actor and the writer of the film Electra was actually one of her roles that was never played duo to censorship. The other reason for choosing Electra was the fact that she had a political character in the Euripides and Sophocles drama and she revolts against a system.

What we see in the rest of the film: the director accepts the limitations forced by the morality ministry and at the end on the control and review day of the play, the female character remains silent and does not play and we can feel these are Electra’s effects. In the final scene the woman decides to take Electra to the streets and play it for people, but what we see is the inability of the actor to speak the lines as if she is struggling with dyslexia.

In my opinion this is the effect of censorship on artists, not being able to speak their words and voice their ideas and the blurry future caused by this censorship.