Dance Iranian Style at Cannes Marche Du Film #3

This is what I hate the most; the moments within a terrible feeling of belonging to nowhere. Luckily it just happens sometimes and this morning is one of those moments.  Every time I walk to an Iranian stand, there is a polite but cold and aloof feeling, I can guess their thoughts: there she is, the Iranian woman who doesn't live in Iran anymore and so she doesn't belong to us any more. The same happens when I walk to a Dutch stand: there she is, the Iranian woman who happens to live in the Netherlands and to speak our language but she doesn't belong with us. She remains the foreigner for ever! Funny that this must happen today when I actually should be very happy with the day.

Today I learn many things about theatrical screening on demand, a very successful way of screening art house movies in Canada, US and Australia. The bad news is that I hear at the end of the session that the Amstelfilm initiative 'We want cinema' which follows more or less the same way is stopping soon. It seems that it is not working well in the Netherlands. It is sad to hear but i'm not surprised at all. I still don't know why but the same goes for the crowdfunding in the Netherlands. It works of course for small projects and small amount of money but still without a success for big projects. I spoke to a guy from Denmark who made three feature films just by crowdfunding. He gathered every time a budget of almost two million dollars. I was shocked. I remember our four months of hard and at the end unsuccessful crowdfunding campaign for Dance Iranian Style just for 30 thousand euro.  I still hear from, so called, friends complaining about my update-mails every two weeks. They are the one who actually never paid a penny and never supported our film in any way. And they also have never heard of the word UNSUBSCRIBE! that helps them get rid of my emails in a minute.  Alright, I have just got to get it off my chest. Enough wining!

Today I talked to four buyers. They were interested in our material. I have a followup meeting with two of them and the other two want to see the whole film first. An Iranian distributor who approaches me himself for a talk about our film advises me not to make an art house movie any more and specially not a human rights related movie. He says that there is no market for it at all.  'People around the world are tired of films with humanistic subjects,' he says. 'Everybody wants to have fun.' When I tell him that my next feature movie is going to be a Bollywood film (joke!), he immediately gives me his business card and makes me promise to contact him as soon as I begin with the production. He even gives me his private email address in case I cannot reach him on his business address.  The only condition he has is that the film must have a happy ending. Not like A Separation a foggy unclear ending which gives people a bad feeling. But he won a Oscar, I say.  Yaaaa, he was lucky, but not everyone can get away with such a film, and he certainly didn't deserve it, he says. I loved it, I say.  He doesn't answer me, but suddenly he has a urgent meeting that he has to attend to.  It was though much fun talking to him.

After a long day meetings and talking I got a surprise invitation at the Fortissimo Film where I meet my dear Niloufar and Aydin and many other interesting people.  There is drinks and nice food but when I see delicious gherkins, I forget all about the other food. i love gherkins and Im not even pregnant, hahaha.

The storm is getting heavy when I walk to the bus stop heading home. The weather reminds me of Dutch weather. There is rain in the air and it is chilly when I get off of the bus. 

Now, I say 'sleep well' to you all, my dear friends in the Netherlands and around the world and hope to tell you more tomorrow.

PS Sorry not much pictures today. Tomorrow more :)