.jpg "Actor Mostafa Zamani acts in a scene from “Queen”")
TEHRAN -- “The Queen”, a war drama which will likely be selected as Iran’s submission for the 2013 Academy Awards, went on screen in Tabriz on Tuesday.
The story of the film is set in the Iranian southwestern city Abadan during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. An Iranian soldier hides in the Abadan Oil Refinery to reconnoiter the Iraqi forces.
The film premiered completely at the 29th Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran in February 2012. However, director Mohammadreza Basheh-Ahangar has been forced to cut out 15 minutes of the film in order to gain the cultural officials’ approval for the public screening in Tabriz.
“Some scenes and dialogues in the film were annoying for some people,” Basheh-Ahangar said in a press conference in Tehran on Tuesday.
“Thus, we had to cut the scenes and dialogues, though I was not in agreement with the modifications,” he lamented.
Certain people have criticized the film and consider it “anti-war” due to the fact that the film challenges Iran’s official outlook on the Iran-Iraq war.
Asked about the reason behind such criticism, Basheh-Ahangar said, “I have said elsewhere and will it repeat again: I love Iran and I have no plan for subverting (the ruling system).”
He added that people dislike films that portray certain concepts about the war, and consequently, they criticize these productions and label the film “anti-war”.
Basheh-Ahangar said that the film is also scheduled to be screened in two theaters in Baghdad.
This film is one of six films from which a submission will be selected to represent Iranian cinema at the 85th annual Academy Awards in 2013.
The other films include “A Cube of Sugar” directed by Reza Mirkarim, “The Orange Dressed” by Dariush Mehrjuii, “Here Without Me” by Bahram Tavkkoli, “Alzheimer’s” by Ahmadreza Motamedi and “Death Is My Profession” by Amir-Hossein Saqafi.
MMS/YAW
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