TEHRAN -- Iran’s Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC) has agreed to finance the production of a big budget movie project about the first Iranian female race car driver, Laleh Seddiq, who is called the “little Schumacher”, in reference to the German Formula One star Michael Schumacher.

 

The DEFC is affiliated with the Iran Cinema Organization, which is a subsection of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.

 

Iran Cinema Organization Director Javad Shamaqdari has defended the movie project “Laleh” against severe criticism by filmmakers and others.

 

Shamaqdari called the project “a new experiment” during a press conference on Sunday.

 

“Films against us are produced outside Iran with foreign casts and in the English language. We felt it necessary for us to follow this method and to make such a film here,” he said.

 

Persian media outlets announced last week that the project will cost 50 billion rials (over $2.5 million). Shamaqdari confirmed the estimate.

 

“To make this film in the international arena, we need to hire a foreign cast. When you want to work in the international arena, you have to add more zeros on the right side of the number on your budget for any enterprise,” he said.

 

The Iran Cinema Organization’s plan to allocate a large sum of money for the film project was censured by Iranian media outlets and a number of cineastes after it was announced last week.

 

Filmmaker Mohammadreza Eslamlu, who is also a close friend of Shamaqdari, was one of the cineastes who raised an objection to the project.

 

“Today, the international sanctions imposed by European countries on Iran and threats by the United States against the country have affected the identity and existence of our beloved country. In this situation, the art of cinema should stand beside the people and the goals of the governmental system,” he told the Persian service of the Mehr News Agency.

 

“Thus, making a film about the life of a rally driver girl, namely Laleh, is quite trivial after all,” said Eslamlu, who was the director of “The 9/11 Black Box”, a political documentary that casts doubt on the official story disseminated by the U.S. government about the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

 

“Laleh” will be directed by the Los Angeles-based Iranian filmmaker Asadollah Niknejad, also known as Essy Niknejad, who is the owner of the production company INPinc in Los Angeles. 

 

An article published by the Fars News Agency on Monday criticized the decision to hire Niknejad for the project.

 

“Can a Hollywood director make a film confronting the anti-Iranian movies?” asked the writer of the article.

 

Shamaqdari’s advisor, Jalil Erfanmanesh, was commissioned to revise the screenplay of “Laleh”, which was written by Niknejad.

 

No further details have been published about the film project.

 

MMS/YAW/HG

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