TEHRAN -- Director and members of the cast of the Iranian film “Night Bus” attended a review session held at Tehran’s Honar Cultural Center on December 16.

“As in my previous works, I broke many of the conventional rules and principles of filmmaking in the production of ‘Night Bus’,” director Kiumars Purahmad said during the review.
“It’s such an approach that results in outstanding works,” he added.
“Night Bus” is about an Iranian teenage combatant and a middle-aged soldier who are tasked to relocate a group of Iraqi prisoners of war by bus behind the front during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, which in Iran is called the Sacred Defense.
Purahmad said, “Making a film about the war has always been one of my ambitions.”
Most sequences of the black and white film have been shot in a stationary bus. Members of the film’s crew shook the bus to create the impression of movement!
“I didn’t want the audience to have to bear looking at the blood-stained face of Emad (one of the characters in Night Bus),” Purahmad said in answer to a question about why he had chosen to make the film in black and white.
“In addition, I think this form is more exciting, and moreover we all became acquainted with the cinema through black and white films,” he added.
“Night Bus” won the Jury Grand Prize at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, which was held in Gold Coast, Australia on November 13. It has also been screened in several other international events.
“The film has an international appeal as it speaks about people who are suffering from war, not caring about their nationalities,” Purahamd noted.
Actors Mehrdad Sediqian, Amir Zand and Kurosh Soleimani also attended the session. However, three of the movie’s other leading actors -- Khosro Shakibaii, Mohammadreza Forutan and Elnaz Shakerdust were unable to participate in the event due to their busy film-acting schedules.
Amir Zand, who played the part of the Iraqi prisoner of war Emad in the film, described his role as difficult due to the fact that he had had to play blindfold.
“The film’s casting crew was excellent,” noted Soleimani, who acted the part of an Iraqi auxiliary nurse.
“I hope Shakibaii continues to act in Iranian films so that we can learn from him,” he added.
“Thank God that I was a passenger on the bus, without having to pay for a ticket,” joked Sediqian, who plays the teenage combatant in “Night Bus”.
He went on to say that he has recorded the memories of the 60-day project in his mind as “60 beautiful days”.