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| Festival Year |
Festival Section |
| 2015 |
21ST CENTURY SILENTS |
| Film Title |
JUNK GIRL |
| Alternative Title 1 |
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| Alternative Title 2 |
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| Alternative Title 3 |
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| Country |
Iran |
| Release Date |
2015 |
| Production Co. |
Mohammad Zare |
| Director |
Mohammad Zare |
| Format |
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Speed (fps) |
| DCP |
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| Footage |
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Time |
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15' |
| Archive Source |
Mohammad Zare |
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| Print Notes |
col.; senza did./no titles |
| Other Credits |
| scen: Shalale Kheiri, dalla poesia di/ based on the poem by Tim Burton (1997); anim: Mohammad Zare, Shalale Kheiri; pupazzi/puppets, scg./des: Mohammad Zare, Shalale Kheiri, Sara Seydafkan; f./ph., illuminazione/lighting, visual eff: Roozbeh Shamshiri; cost: Raena Zare; backstage ph: Zahra Razavi; title: Sevin Sharifi |
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| Other Information |
| Un film di/A film by Mohammad Zare, Shalale Kheiri |
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| Program Notes |
Junk Girl is the evidence and a fruit of a profound cinephilia permeating Iranian film culture. Even though the last 35 years have seen the legal flow of international cultural products brutally choked by a politically and socially oppressive system, these official policies have been frustrated thanks to the unquenchable determination of Iranian cinephiles to stay in close contact with contemporary cinema and world film heritage. The newer generations in particular have found in the maligned culture of piracy their strongest ally, in giving them entry to the – virtual – cinematic vaults of the world. Hence we need not be surprised to discover this love letter to Hollywood’s great fantasist Tim Burton coming from the Iranian film community – even though fantasy is the last quality for which Iranian cinema is recognized internationally.
Iranian cineastes’ fascination with Burton began as far back as the 1990s, when his films, circulating in bootleg VHS copies, captivated the imagination of Iranian viewers and critics. The fascination has lasted, so that now a young filmmaker from the North West of Iran is inspired by one of Burton’s short poems about weird and off-beat characters, to make his directorial debut, in tribute to the American master.
By his own account, Mohammad Zare’s fascination with the Burtonian cosmos is largely due to protagonists who are “different, yet relatable to us” – characters who often meet tragic, or at least melancholy endings. It is no coincidence that such forlorn pariahs were once iconic in Iranian cinema, and central to a group of films often styled by Iranian critics as “street films”. To an extent this might explain a particular attraction of Burton’s characters to Iranian cinephiles. Interestingly, in one of the key films of this school – Masud Kimiai’s Reza, the Motorcyclist (Reza Motori, 1970) – the body of the doomed main character ends up dumped in a garbage truck. Such is the destination of the titular Junk Girl; but to take a girl – even though an “unusual” one – as the central figure distances Zare’s film from the macho character of the “street films”. Despite sharing their bitter world view, Junk Girl has little in common with this tradition: it derives more from Burton’s particular revisiting of Expressionism.
Direct quotes from Burton’s films abound in Junk Girl; and it is intriguing to imagine the reaction of the creator of Edward Scissorhands, finding himself envisioned almost in the manner of one of his own creations, with a mixed expression of gloom and curiosity. And beside him in the frame we glimpse a puppet typically “eastern” in its facial features and costume. The inevitable conflation of two cultural spheres constitutes the fascination and – to non-Iranian eyes – the novelty of this film, which pivots on human feelings. Like some “arthouse” Iranian films of international reputation, there is a self-reflexive element, of which the cameo presence of “Burton” is only one instance. The self-reflexive twist of the story heightens the emotions and even further aligns the film with Burton’s best works in their confrontation of the notion of destiny.
Like his role model, Zare – who is a member of the Iranian Youth Cinema Society – has launched his directorial career in the challenging technique of stop-motion. This alone is an audacious adventure for a young independent artist living far from the capital city, Tehran, where the major part of film facilities and activities are concentrated. This is not to mention that stop-motion has not been a real niche part of Iranian animation (perhaps with the exception of Abdollah Alimorad’s films).
Junk Girl has been warmly received in Iran, and was one of the few short films to enjoy a limited theatrical run this year; and with international visibility, like the Giornate screening, it is to be hoped that it may open up stop-motion animation as an accessible medium for young independent Iranian filmmakers.
Junk Girl is entitled to take its place in the Giornate del Cinema Muto since Zare dispenses with any expository dialogue whatsoever – a decision taken in post-production when he decided his images were sufficiently expressive – and further as tribute to a master of cinema who mesmerizes his audience, supremely, with his incomparable visual creativity. – Ramin S. Khanjani |
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