The Mehr news agency reported that the two films are “Certified Copy,” Kiarostami’s most recent picture, and “Shirin,” the film he made just before “Certified Copy.”
Kiarostami left Iran after the suppression of the 2009 post-election protests and is now based in France. “Certified Copy” was filmed in Italy with a European cast after he moved to Europe. The story line has nothing to do with Iran.
Mehr quoted Ramin Rahimi, a film distributor, as saying “Certified Copy” would be shown in Iran after a slight modification so that scenes comply with Iran’s hejab requirements.
“Shirin” was filmed in Iran before Kiarostami bolted. It shows an audience’s emotional involvement with a movie. The film contains close-up shots of women in a theater as they react to the screening of a film of the classical Persian love story of Khosrow and Shirin.
Kiarostami’s many other films remain banned.
It wasn’t known who pushed for a screening license for the two films. More than a year ago, Kiarostami said he had given up on ever getting permission to screen his films in the Islamic Republic and wouldn’t bother applying for screening licenses anymore.
“I have not applied for a screening license for my films for a long time and I will never do it any more,” he said, according to the Cultural Heritage News Agency.
In Iran, the Culture Ministry must approve a script and give it a production license before filming can begin. The film producer must later apply for a screening license from the ministry for a domestic showing and a separate license to export the film to be shown abroad. Iranian movie theaters are under the control of the Iranian government; thus, unlicensed films will not be shown at any cinema.
CDs and DVDs of Kiaro-stami’s “Shirin” are currently being sold on the Iranian black market, “which once was the exclusive domain of porno flicks, home video footage and bootleg copies of onscreen Iranian and foreign films,” Kiarostami said.
“They have problems with independent filmmakers,” the director said in criticism of Iranian cultural officials. “They decide what people will watch, and unfortunately, our people think that I am not interested in screening my films in Iran.”
