Snail

Directed by: Aminreza Alimohammadi

Cast: Bahareh Nouhian, Iliya Akhavanrad

Country: Iran

Time: 14:00

Synopsis: A loving mother strives to make her young son's singing dreams come true but an audition takes a dramatic, unforeseen turn.

Where did the idea for SNAIL come from?

In a world full of furious and raging superheroes, I wanted to say that there is a super hero named Mother who awaits her child's success. In desperate times, when the world is filled with despair, I believe it's Art's duty to show love to the world.

Tell us about the casting process. How did you come across Bahareh Nouhian.

Iliya Akhavanrad Bahar is a well-known theater and movie actress in Iran. After calling her and telling her about the script, she accepted to be in it. All the crew members were like a real family together and tried their best for this project which belongs to all of us.

What filmmakers are you paying attention to these days? Who influences you?

I am really interested in Paul Thomas Anderson and Spielberg's movies but I pay more attention to the filmmaker's goal and their message for the audience rather than just the directing. My main goal in movie-making is to make people rethink their life in every possible part of it.

What challengers are being faced by Iranian filmmakers today?

There are different types of filmmakers in Iran. One group are those who are forced to sell their art in order to make a living out of it. The other group are those who, if they dare to make a movie about certain subjects, there would not be no one willing to invest in their project or anyone to support them and their work. In Iran, due to the movie censoring, we don't have the right to write or make a movie about certain subjects like homosexuality or religious subjects or love scenes even as simple as a couple holding hands or even showing woman's hair. Filmmakers are almost under a lot of boundaries in Iran, and because of that, a lot of movies are being made by underground productions.