Mania Akbari Video Essay | Fake Backstage

The explanations regarding the fake backstage that was released by Abbas Kiarostami's son, Ahmad Kiarostami, in 2022, by Mania Akbari: After 20 years, two lost film reels, which had been recorded by Bahman Kiarostami and were with him, were finally found. Katayoun Taleizadeh was a gentle and humble painter herself, and my painting model. She used to come to our home as a friend and a painting model for years. One day, with a feminine love affliction and pain, and a shaved head, she came to my home and as a habit sat in the car that in those days was like a movable home to me. We pressed the cameras button, talked about womanly pains and agonies, and cried. Later, your father, Abbas Kiarostami, watched those scenes on my homes television and wanted to meet Katayoun. On that day, camera crews and witnesses gathered to reshoot that scene, in Bahman Kiarostami's presence, and his camera being ready and prepared. Abbas Kiarostami was under the impression that he wanted to shave Katayoun's head and recreate those scenes, in a more cinematic way with his own directory. Although, for years, he'd been searching for these pieces to prove his presence in the backstage of the film, he was not able to find them, in fact, Bahman had announced they were lost. How fortunate that the lost is now finally found. Yet, I find it crucial to point out that those scenes in the film Ten (2002), in which Abbas Kiarostami tried to pretend that he was directing, were not only not used, but also the entire concept of the film became summarized to those original and brilliant scenes of the private conversation of two women; scenes that he had promised he wont ever use. Now that I have a more pronounced grasp of women's rights and its confiscation by the hegemonic power, its rather difficult to witness how this power hegemony and its benefits, capitals, and resources are being passed to the successor, his elder son, Ahmad. Even more difficult to bear is to ignore the rights and humane creativity of women being confiscated in the repeated patriarchal path of the next generations; sons after fathers. Everything Katayoun has visually exclaimed in the film; from her feminine being and her feminine pain, to her shaved hair; came about without the presence of a man or a masculine vision; let alone Abbas Kiarostami whom Katayoun had not yet seen at that point. She wasn't led and didn't have a leader. No male figure was hidden behind the story to form the inner experiences of a woman, as it was a deep female pain of loss that didn't have a director, nor an author. The sole author and performer was none other than Katayoun, with her deeply meaningful experience and her courage; and the recorder was no one except me, as Katayoun's like-minded companion and sympathizer. As a matter of fact, at the moment that Katayoun removed her white head scarf to show her shaved head, she had never encountered Abbas Kiarostami. For these trampled rights and confiscated ideas and thoughts in history, be it my sole mission in life, I will fight till my end. What fuels my power and energy, is the dampen, and oppressed, and confiscated voices of countless women. Fighting against the power hegemony is a fight against a power system that is eager to remove, confiscate and commodify every outlet and occasion. Hope for justice and effective legislation. Mania Akbari

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• #cannes_film_festival
• #katayoun_taleizadeh