28/05/2024 - We caught up with the Franco-Iranian director to discuss his new project, winner of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Visions du Réel

Although in his previous films Bassidji, Iranian [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and My Worst Enemy [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mehran Tamadon
film profile] Mehran Tamadon filmed Iranian society without taboos, for his new project The Last Days of the Hospital (Derniers jours de l'hôpital), winner of the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award at Visions du Réel, which is due to start filming in September, he has decided to shift his gaze to France and in particular to a psychiatric ward in the Val de Marne that encapsulates all the problems of the hospital system as a whole. Cineuropa spoke to him about his sharp vision of cinema, which is both experimental and militant.

Cineuropa: After filming Iranian society for a long time, this time you're pointing your camera at France - why this choice?
Mehran Tamadon: In my previous films I asked myself a lot of questions about how to relate to people who were very different from me. In Iran, these were people with power, people I feared. But this question goes beyond Iran, it's relevant everywhere, even in France. How do you get in touch with people at a national far-right rally, for example, people who defend a power that we criticise or that we don't want? But also, in the case of my next film, how do you get in touch with people who have psychiatric problems, even though, obviously, I don't want to make any kind of amalgam by comparing them to mullahs or Basij. My artistic approach caught the attention of the director of the Val de Marne psychiatric hospital, where my film will be shot, who suggested that I set up creative workshops in his department. At first, it was quite complicated because I had no idea how psychiatric institutions worked. I didn't really know how to work with these people and it took me years to find my feet, to get close to everyone: patients, carers, nurses and doctors.

What did you learn from these creative workshops? How do you plan to use this experience in your film?
I've learnt things gradually. I give creative workshops every Monday and spend eight hours with the patients. Everything can change from one week to the next, some may have had a crisis, others may have been sedated or had a row with their family. Every week, we have to think about how we're going to re-establish the link, how we're going to recreate a group during the workshops. It's quite a complicated exercise and every Monday I ask myself whether I'm going to manage to build something with them. Asking these kinds of questions helps us to stay humble, to stay sharp, to find last-minute solutions and to constantly question ourselves.

How do you plan to shoot your film? Are you going to rely on improvisation or a predefined script?
This will necessarily take the form of workshops. We're going to set up a working group made up of doctors, nurses, patients and psychologists. Together, we're going to think about how to encourage a therapeutic relationship in the department, and how to change habits a little. This is an ‘exceptional’ department, which is trying out a lot of things. Not all psychiatric wards have artistic contributors, filmmakers or musicians. The reality is that the department is understaffed and runs partly on temporary staff, which inevitably complicates clinical work. A system based on temporary staff is very fragile and unstable.

Do you still believe in the revolutionary power of cinema? Is political and militant cinema still possible?
That's what I'm trying to do anyway. I film reality but at the same time I modify it by filming it. By modifying reality through film, I show that another horizon is possible. I show this ‘other’ reality, this horizon of possibilities, through reality. I'm one of those people who believe that cinema can change things, or at least that it can play a part in changing things. I believe that society is becoming increasingly violent and intolerant, and that political figures are becoming less and less responsible. The right-wing and far-right media, at least in France, are increasingly taking power by lying to the public, and it's up to us, as film-makers, to use the camera not just for poetic and aesthetic purposes but also for political and militant ones.

How will the Eurimages Award help you to make your film?
In any case, it will allow us to start shooting while we secure further funding. Normally, we'll start shooting for three months in September. My films are always a bit of an experiment and, in this particular case, for the experience to be real and fruitful, it has to last even beyond the shoot, there has to be a wider follow-up.

(Translated from French)