SANYA, December 7. /TASS/. Oscar winning Iranian film director Asghar Farhadi told reporters at the Hainan Film Festival in Sanya about the most important thing in filmmaking, casting and also explained why he hadn't yet shot any joint films with the Chinese.
"I have not dared to shoot in China up until recently", said Farhadi speaking at a master class for the public on the sidelines of the festival. "I used to get a lot of screenplays from Chin, proposals of joint work. However they were somewhat inconsistent with my mindset, and I haven't thought about them at that point", the film director said.
When asked what was the most important in filmmaking, Farhadi explained: " There are a lot of movies telling a tragic tale, but they seem unrealistic." "There are movies, on the other hand, where there is no tragedy, and the plot is very realistic, but the audience gets tired watching them", he went on to say.
"What is the most important for me? After having finished working on a film, I would have called a person close to me, shown them the film, asked them a couple of questions one of them being 'was it tiresome'", the film director said. "It is very important to have a balance between tragedy and reality while posing a question whether the movie was tiresome".
As far as the casting goes, Farhadi has noted that he always tries to search for "new" faces, "unspoiled" by the camera. According to the film director, such actors "are still very close to real life". He also pointed out that an actor's voice is no less important than their looks. "First I look at the pictures, but the voice is no less important — it adds to the image helping to create a whole character", the director emphasized.
Apart from Farhadi, Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, his colleague from Hong Kong Stanley Kwan, British film director Simon West and American actor Ethan Hawke take part in the events.
Movies from dozens of countries are presented, and filmmakers from all over the world take part in the second Hainan Film Festival. The festival program includes open-air screenings on the beach and the Forum of Russian-Chinese filmmakers.
The festival was first held on Hainan in December 9-16, 2018, and it was officially declared "one of China's major film festivals." The screening is supported by the Hainan authorities and with the approval of the Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee. The world's first Hainan film festival was attended by such world-famous actors and directors as Jackie Chan, Aamir Khan, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, Nuri Bilge Ceylan.