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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
The silent animated short film, In The Shadow Of The Cypress, is the second film by the Iranian animators Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani. The husband-and-wife team previously collaborated on 2017's Run Rostam Run (Bodo Rostram Bodo) — Molayemi as writer and director, and Sohani in the art department. However, speaking with them, there's the sense that they see themselves as joint authors.
There's a thematic thread of familial relationships connecting the two films. While Run Rostam Run revolves around a father seeking to make amends with his son, In The Shadow Of The Cypress explores the relationship between a father and his daughter. In both stories, the fathers are characters with a dramatic past — from a Persian hero to a former sea captain who suffers with post-traumatic stress disorder.
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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
In conversation with Eye For Film, Molayemi and Sohani discussed their six and a half-year painstaking journey to complete the film, which they say was an achievement in and of itself.
Paul Risker: Why film as a means of creative expression? Was there an inspirational or defining moment for you personally?
Hossein Molayemi and Shirin Sohani: Both of us studied and worked in other artistic fields, like painting, graphic design, illustration, handicrafts, and even industrial design, before entering the world of cinema. While all of these are taken into account as artistic fields, and we're not trying to say which branch of art is superior and which is inferior to the others, we have to admit that none of them can compare to film and cinema in terms of audience reach, influence, and impact.
Cinema is a dynamic art form, and like music, the element of time is very important in it. This is one of the reasons why it has a greater impact on the audience. In addition, cinema, especially animation, encompasses a variety of other arts, from literature and music to painting and illustration.
In animation filmmaking, the filmmaker experiences many inspiring and exciting moments, in addition to the difficulties and challenges. These moments usually happen quietly and gradually. Times when, after a lot of struggle and effort, the screenplay is finally unlocked, and its various parts are properly matched with each other. Times when the inanimate characters start to move. When shots that have been animated separately are placed together in the editing stage, and suddenly they establish a dramatic connection with each other, and all together, they form a single whole. All of these are unique moments that can perhaps only be experienced in filmmaking.
PR: What compelled you to believe in this film and decide to tell this story at this point in time?
HM & SS: After working on the film Run Rostam Run, we came to the conclusion that we share nearly the same interests and tastes in filmmaking, and in addition to being husband and wife, we can also be an artistic couple who can work efficiently together. Therefore, we decided to co-direct our first joint film together and work on a subject that was a common concern for us. Both of us, in our personal lives, have had issues and concerns about our parents, and therefore, one of our most important obsessions was the issue of emotional relationships between parents and children, as well as the importance of family.
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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
In choosing the initial idea of the film, we only paid attention to our own motivations and feelings, not to topics that might be more attractive to some international film festivals. It should also be said that our belief and interest in this film gradually increased during its production, and as the story developed and became more attractive in our eyes, the importance of completing this film increased for us. We made it not only for the audience, but also for the sake of ourselves. As David Fincher once said: “A movie is made for an audience and a film is made for both the audience and the filmmakers.” Interestingly, even during the making of this film, especially during the story development, we were able to get to know ourselves better.
To be honest, in some cases, we really felt that a superior power was encouraging us to make this film and persevere in completing it, and miraculously helped us in solving the issues and problems related to this film. We felt a kind of responsibility and mission regarding the making of this film.
PR: You're painting a picture of a journey of discovery.
HM & SS: When we started working, there were only a few sheets of blank white paper and two pencils on the table. As we said before, we only knew that the film would be about the importance of family, the emotional relationship between a parent and his/her child, and probably the parent's sacrifice for the child, and most likely, the film's location would be somewhere in Iran. We had not even decided about the gender of the characters and whether they would be the same sex or not. After a while, as we progressed in the screenplay, in addition to the initial idea, other obsessions we had in mind, such as war veterans suffering from PTSD, the issues of the environment and war, unconsciously entered the story. For nearly a year, we held daily brainstorming sessions as a couple, and during these numerous sessions, we reached the final story.
PR: We are now far removed from the silent era, but In The Shadow Of The Cypress reminds us that silent cinema still exists, and that it remains a powerful means of telling an emotional and psychologically driven story.
HM & SS: The experience of reviewing films that are full of dialogue made us come to the conclusion that it is better to make our film without any words. Films that have dialogue, even with the use of subtitles, in many cases fail to fully convey the concepts and ideas to the audience. Simultaneously following the film and the subtitles usually reduces the quality of the audience's perception of the film, and therefore, in such films, a direct and pure cinematic connection with foreign audiences is usually not formed. It should be noted that when you deliberately deprive yourself of the help of dialogues to convey ideas, your job as a director becomes very difficult. Therefore, on the one hand, the use of words in filmmaking makes the filmmaker's work much easier, but on the other hand, it creates a barrier between the film and audiences with its different languages. We decided from the very beginning to make a film without dialogue so that we could communicate with audiences from different cultures and who speak different languages. The fact that a person in Africa, Latin America or the Far East, without any shared cultural background and common language, can connect with our film was very attractive to us.
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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
We should add that we believe that silent films are closer to the nature and origin of pure art and cinema. We also feel that not having dialogue is more suitable for conveying psychological concepts and also increases the sensory and emotional impact on the audience. This also made us decide not to use words in our film.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that making silent films is very common in the world of animation; but such films usually do not have a realistic approach, and therefore, not having dialogue does not create a problem for them. When it comes to realistic films, the absence of dialogue may result in too much of an artificial and unbelievable atmosphere. The world and atmosphere of our film was relatively realistic, and our challenge was how to make the situation not seem unbelievable and artificial to the audience. This required a lot of care and effort. It should be noted that the distance of these two characters from each other throughout the film, their quarrel and subsequent miff and resentment towards each other, to some extent, helped us to make the story more believable, despite the film being silent.
PR: By relying on expressions, gestures, body language, as well as cinematographic composition, music and sound design instead of dialogue, do you force the audience to become a more active participant?
HM & SS: You are absolutely right. One of the potential problems of using dialogue is that if it is not used properly in the film, it keeps the viewer in a passive, neutral, and consuming state. Also, if you use too much dialogue, then the viewer will probably lose their connection with the film. But when you remove the dialogue from the film and use other compensatory mechanisms instead, making the film and conveying concepts, emotions, and ideas to the viewer becomes more difficult. In return, however, the viewer plays a more active role in reading the film and in the triangle of sender, message, and receiver.
PR: It occurs to me that the film is deliberately structured with layers of metaphor. It requires an audience to compassionately and empathetically recognise psychological details and patterns of human behaviour to understand the characters.
HM & SS: Well, we believe that a film is not necessarily made for just a specific group of audiences. A film can simultaneously connect with audiences at higher and lower levels. We have designed multiple layers in this film. The outer layer of the story, regardless of metaphors and symbols, tries to tell an engaging story. Many viewers may only connect with this outer layer of our film.
Every viewer is not supposed to get the same amount out of the film as others. Also, it should be mentioned that, despite the fact that influencing and giving pleasure to the general audience was important to us, on the other hand, our priority in filmmaking is the more sophisticated audience. It is usually said that a good film should be made for a smart viewer.
In addition, we did not initially intend to make a symbolic and metaphorical film. Part of the metaphors that you see in this film have entered the story unintentionally and unconsciously from our minds. After realising these unconscious metaphors and symbols were there, we decided to keep some which were helpful to our initial idea and the story line, and remove the others.
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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
PR: I can almost see a hint of the split persona here, which was famously used by Robert Louis Stevenson in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. PTSD can heighten the juxtaposition between one's kind and cruel nature, which the father embodies. The essence of In the Shadow of the Cypress is a conflict between light and dark, and also how we can love and care about one another, yet still cause hurt, as seen in the father and daughter's relationship.
HM & SS: The battle between good and evil within the father is an internal battle, and finally, with the internal changes in the father and his growth and transformation, light overcomes darkness within him. This simultaneous love and hate were important to us. It was important that the characters have depth and not be one-dimensional.
This non-one-dimensionality and depth of the characters helped to make them more attractive and believable for the viewer. We also wanted the viewer to have a certain judgment about the father at the beginning of the film, and gradually, as information about the father's past is revealed throughout the film, the viewer's judgment of him changes.
Even at the end of the film, when the father emerges victorious from a great test and is able to sacrifice and let go of his past and prove his fatherly support to his daughter, both the daughter's and even her father's own judgments about themselves change. We see a new aspect of the father's personality.
It should be mentioned that at the end of the film, none of the problems of this small family have been solved. Everything remains as it is — only the judgments have changed, and new aspects of the father's personality have been revealed.
PR: Cinema can take us into vulnerable spaces, both for the audience and the filmmakers. An idea I've been thinking about is the importance of considering vulnerability when making and talking about films.
HM & SS: If there is no vulnerability, cinema will not exist at all. At least, artistic and deep cinema will not exist. If there is no vulnerability, there will be no motivation either, and in this case, no movement or event will occur at all. This is also the case in reality and real life, just as Hitchcock says, drama is life with the dull bits cut out. In our film, both the father and the daughter are damaged and vulnerable. Why did we make this film? Because we are also vulnerable. Why does the audience connect with the film? Because on the big screen, they see themselves, their traumas, and their vulnerability.
PR: There's the story we see onscreen and then there's the behind the scenes story of the making of the film. Are there any stories the audience might find interesting to learn?
HM & SS: There are many stories behind the production of this film that cannot be told here. But let's just say that we spent more than six and a half years of our lives making this film, and since we distributed the film ourselves, we have dedicated another year and a half to its distribution. In total, eight years of our lives have been spent on this film so far.
We endured and overcame many difficulties, including lack of money, illness, political problems, sanctions and severe economic crises, internet censorship in Iran, and family problems. The only thing that enabled us to be so patient was our love and faith in this film. We made each and every single frame of this film with love and sincerity because, as we told you earlier, we felt a kind of mission and responsibility to make it. We hope that In The Shadow Of The Cypress will be successful on its way to the Oscars because if it receives an Oscar statuette, it will be the first animation Oscar for Iran, which will be very uplifting and motivating for the oppressed people of Iran in these bitter and dark days.
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| In The Shadow Of The Cypress |
PR: How do you look back on the experience of making In The Shadow Of The Cypress and do you find filmmaking to be a transformative experience?
HM & SS: Making this film was like delivering a shipment along a dangerous and winding road to its destination. We are happy that we were able to get this shipment through the many obstacles and deep valleys, and deliver it to its final destination. What we say may seem a bit dramatic and exaggerated, but it is the pure truth. Considering our situation in Iran, simply just completing this film, regardless of all the awards we have received, was a kind of success and achievement for us.
From the reactions and feedback of the audience, we realise that seeing this film has been a transformative experience for them. Although this film is not a melodramatic film, it has deeply affected many viewers because, as we said before, they see themselves on the screen. By talking to different people, we believe that this film creates a kind of catharsis in the audience.
It should also be said that making In The Shadow Of The Cypress was like a university for us, both technically and in terms of intellectual growth and the philosophy of life. None of us are the same people we were eight years ago, and making this film has been very effective in this transformation. Therefore, In The Shadow Of The Cypress has created change and transformation not only in the audience but also in its creators. Here maybe we should refer again to what we quoted from David Fincher earlier.
In The Shadow Of The Cypress has been nominated for an Oscar.
