Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani mentioned having to depart Iran, her love for music, and her profession, together with her most up-to-date position in Julia Ducournau’s Cannes Movie Competition competitors film Alpha, throughout a public dialog on the Locarno Movie Competition in Switzerland on Thursday.
She talked about shaving her head when rising up in Iran, together with when she was 16, which allowed her to play sports activities with boys. “I had a double identification,” she mentioned. “I used to be widespread with the women as a result of I’d give them the telephone numbers of my associates. … The identical boys I’d play with within the evenings [as a boy] would whistle at me within the morning and never acknowledge me.”
She concluded: “I used to be enjoying with loss of life. I used to be obliged to sacrifice my femininity with a purpose to experience a bicycle.”
Requested about being pressured into exile, Farahani instructed that the authorities initially “had no large concern with me,” when she took on her position in Ridley Scott’s movie Physique of Lies reverse Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, changing into the primary Iranian star to behave in a serious Hollywood manufacturing. However she mentioned Iran was on the time thought-about a part of the “axis of evil” by the U.S., and her not sporting a hijab within the movie ended up getting her into the crosshairs.
When she wished to journey to the U.Okay., her passport was seized because the authorities expressed concern that she can be used as an Iranian image seized by the West. However the choose in cost argued authorities needed to watch Physique of Lies earlier than sentencing Farahani. Finally, she was handed again her passport and informed she needed to depart Iran as quickly as doable, which she did, becoming “all my recollections, all I might” into two luggage. “I knew I couldn’t return.”
The star shared that she even informed the authorities: “You wish to kill me? So kill me, and I’ll be free.” And she or he mentioned her father acquired threats, together with of violence towards her.
Discussing the hijab, or scarf, that ladies are anticipated to put on in Iran, Farahani mentioned: “Folks suppose the issue is the headscarf, however it’s far more.” However she known as it a robust image, evaluating the headscarf to “the Berlin Wall.”
Requested about residing in France, Farahani mentioned: “I really like France now. I can say that France is an adolescent nation, like a 13-year-old adolescent teenager. The French folks don’t have any endurance and wish to have the whole lot, they complain on a regular basis, and don’t take heed to anybody. … I really like that.” Her remarks drew a lot laughter.
However she additionally shared that at the beginning, she felt remoted and a bit like “in jail” after first transferring to France, joking that she not solely didn’t know numerous cultural references but in addition not one of the cheeses.
When approached about roles in Iran-centric movies after her departure, Farahani mentioned she usually rejected them. However when she learn the script for Eran Riklis’ Studying Lolita in Tehran, she needed to cry, main her to make the film, which felt extra-timely with the rise of the ladies’s rights motion in Iran. The film tells the autobiographical story of a instructor who secretly gathers feminine college students to learn forbidden Western classics.
Requested about Iranian movie, the actress provided: “Jafar Panahi can do something. He’s very robust,” and he or she additionally lauded the brand new wave of youthful Iranian filmmakers. “Regardless of the regime, we stored our soul of artwork and tradition. We’d fairly die than depart our tradition.”
Farahani additionally raised a query about streaming giants. “How is it that Netflix has by no means made something about Iran? We now have so many tales,” she provided. “There are such a lot of tales, so many tales.”
Requested if she might step behind the digital camera as a director, the actress mentioned she doesn’t really feel the urge to take action however left the door open for a possible change of thoughts sooner or later.
The star on Thursday additionally shared that she initially wished to change into a musician as a result of her household was in theater, and “I didn’t just like the actors and actresses.” So, she began music. “I couldn’t keep seated for greater than 20 minutes as a result of I used to be hyperactive,” she mentioned with a smile. “However music has at all times remained my shadow.” Amongst different issues, she has performed piano and guitar in her music.
Farahani questioned if actors select roles or the opposite approach round, mentioning how DiCaprio, for instance, usually performs roles of males who’re wealthy or change into wealthy. After some time, “I simply wished to play some comedy,” she shared. “Sufficient with the killing and the empowerment. I’m on to like now.”
“I are inclined to reply I’m a musician” when folks ask her, Farahani additionally informed the viewers, concluding: “Earlier than life, there was sound.” The actress shared that she wants contact lenses as a result of she is shortsighted, which means sound and rhythm are at all times key for her in appearing. And she or he argued: “Whenever you see good motion pictures, there’s at all times a rhythm. It’s our heartbeat.”
“I really feel, I hear greater than I see,” she added. “Sound and music are the fundamentals of the whole lot and the hyperlink between people.”
Requested about Alpha, Farahani mentioned, “It’s a movie concerning the trans-generational traumas.” Whereas some name it and different current roles she has performed “style” choices, the star mentioned she doesn’t like that designation as she sometimes sees them as dramas which are “a metaphor.” The actress additionally shared that work on Alpha exhausted her a lot that she had forego one other position afterwards.
The 78th version of the venerable fest had opened on Wednesday night, with the star receiving the Excellence Award Davide Campari to a lot applause from an excited crowd on the city’s Piazza Grande and calling cinema a “refuge” in a “darkish world.”
What’s subsequent for her? “I’ve been so busy doing, doing, doing,” Farahani shared. Now, she is attempting to not continually give attention to serving and dealing, however “being,” saying: “Even when I do nothing, I exist. I wish to experiment with that. Human beings might be like flowers – and simply exist.”
Farahani, born in Tehran in 1983, emerged as an appearing expertise at an early age, resulting in her breakthrough position in Dariush Mehrjui’s The Pear Tree in 1998, which gained her the most effective actress award on the Fajr Worldwide Movie Competition.
Her work in Iranian motion pictures has included roles in Abbas Kiarostami’s Shirin (2008) and Asghar Farhadi’s About Elly (2009). She has additionally been on set with such worldwide auteurs as Jim Jarmusch for Paterson (2016), in addition to Ridley Scott for spy thriller Physique of Lies (2008), alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, motion movie Extraction (2020), with Chris Hemsworth, and its sequel (2023). Farahani additionally starred within the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise movie Lifeless Males Inform No Tales (2017). In France, she has labored with such administrators as Christophe Honoré, Alain Chabat, Arnaud Desplechin, Louis Garrel, and Mia Hansen-Løve.
The actress beforehand visited Locarno to current the Rajasthan-set The Track of Scorpions (2017) on the Piazza Grande.
Locarno creative director Giona A. Nazzaro has lauded Farahani as “a key determine in up to date cinema,” highlighting: “Charismatic and multifaceted, she has been in a position to immerse herself in very totally different contexts and roles, guided by her extraordinary expertise and generosity as an artist.”
Farahani is certainly one of a number of big-name Iranian movie creatives attending Locarno78. Zar Amir Ebrahimi stars in opening movie Within the Land of Arto from director Tamara Stepanyan, whereas director Jafar Panahi is presenting his Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Simply an Accident, and Mohammad Rasoulof can also be on the town.
The 2025 Locarno competition runs by Aug. 16.