No one knows better than Mohsen Makhmalbaf that Iranians are movie mad, so when he placed a casting call for one hundred actors for a new film, he expected a crowd; what he got was a crush—five thousand people. After genially announcing, “You are both the subject and the actors in the film,” he begins auditions. What unfolds is a parade of individuals who, for love of cinema, are by turns brash, crafty, shy, touchingly open, unwittingly hilarious.
Director: Mohsen Makhmalbaf. AKA Hello Cinema / سلام سینما
Writer: Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Stars: Shaghayeh Djodat, Behzad Dorani, Feizola Gashghai, Maryam Keyhan, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, M.H. Mokhtarian, Kambiz Shabankare, Azadeh Zanganeh, Mirhadi Tayebi, Moharram Zaynalzadeh.
Cinematographer: Mahmoud Kalari.
Composer: Shardad Rohani.
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One of those playful experiments that shows what cinema can be and what it can do
Made for the occasion on the 100 year anniversary of film, “Salaam cinema” celebrates the art form and yet turns a very sharp critical eye towards the fame and celebrity aspects of it.
“Is it better to be humane than to be a good artist?” the director challenges the auditioning actors. But Mohsen Makhmalbaf himself also questions the role and ethics of the filmmaker by casting himself as the role of a manipulative tyrant.
Similar themes were also dealt with in his next film, the just as powerful and poetic
“A moment of innocence”.
I remember seeing them as a double feature at a festival where they both blew me away. They still do