by Saman Sadeghi Mehr
- Published in Donyaye Tasvir Cinematic Weeklies – No. 2356 (September 2021)
The producer plays an important role in the film, theater, radio and television industries. As a producer, your main task is related to the practical and commercial part of the project and you are responsible for preparing the tools and conditions required by the director, technical agents and actors. The director and the actors also deal with the creative and artistic aspects of the work.
In the cinema, the producer is responsible for financing the project, But on TV, programs are usually custom-made and financing is not one of the main tasks of the producer. As a supplier, you have to manage the production process from the beginning to the end and organize all the necessary resources.
In other words, the producer of the film is the one who provides the conditions for making the films. The producer is responsible for setting up, coordinating, handling and controlling tasks such as raising the required money, hiring key people and the like. The producer involved in all stages of the film making and programming process from development to project completion.
In the radio and television programming process, the producer plays the most key role. Unlike film and television film making, in which the important task of creating the form and structure of the film relies essentially on the knowledge and creativity of the director.
One of these people and the so-called producers is “Hossein Balash”.Balash means tears. Of course, we do not mean Balash I or Volga, the 22nd Parthian king of Iran, who ascended the throne of the great Persian Empire in 51 AD after the death of his father. Rather, it means an active and passionate youth with brevity in the field of cinema production, who is very busy these days and we hear various news from him.
In the 1390s (solar year), new productions and works appeared in Iranian cinema, each of which examined the social, historical and cultural issues of Iran with a different perspective. Looking at the works produced in this decade, we intend to look at the artistic record of one of these young creators, and although it can ot be defined in terms of time for those historical periods, but in these not so long years, it is so It is brilliant and important that we are going to introduce it.
Iranian cinema has experienced various ups and downs in the last decade. From forced confinements to various international awards, the product of what has been revealed to Iranian cinema. In the last ten years, young investors and producers like Hossein Balash have emerged who have been able to shine by being concerned with cinema and valuing content-oriented cinema and authorship.
Undoubtedly, Hossein Balash as a newcomer to cinema, while from the very first years he could only look at making money at the box office and paving his way to commercialization, but with investment as well as production conceptual and semantic films succeeded in creating lasting and valuable works that became popular among the general public and got the attention of critics.
Also in the first decade of his entry into Iranian cinema, he was able to win various awards from the most prestigious festivals in the world with the acclaimed film “President’s Mobile Phone”. With these successes, it is no secret that the influence of a particular genre of cinema in which a young producer such as Balash gambled his capital on it, it was felt by young cinematographers, both directors and producers, but in the meantime there were few young people who, like him, came on the scene as experienced producers and authors.
Although the long journey of various licenses and restrictions in the course of Hossein Balash’s career had hindered him from making significant progress in making many other films, these barriers and obstacles prevented him from shining and creating important works such as “Paper Dream”. He did not take “Loteria” and “Shark” from him in this turbulent decade of Iranian cinema and did not lead him to body cinema. Now, on the eve of the National Day of Iranian Cinema, we have decided to take a closer look at the important performance of this well-thought-out and prominent producer these days.
In the analysis of films produced by this producer, what is very important is that it is possible to look at various elements such as the importance and impact of the film on the audience and the body of cinema, creating a new style and innovation, international success and Internal achieved. However, in all these themes, what is very clear is the approach and concerns of the producer of these works and not others.
The paper dream, based on Balash’s own idea, has an outspoken account of the south of the city, its youth and underprivileged, none of whom have a small contribution, even to the vast resources of wealth production in one of the world’s most oil-rich countries. As one of the most important film making experiences in cinema, Hossein Balash, as an investor and screenwriter of this work, showed that he is basically a producer with his own style.
He wanted to say openly that the fair distribution of power, even at the highest executive level of the country, and the equal supply of wealth, should be taken away from the affluent class in favor of the deprived class, and probably in the near future with this vision and attitude, he will in the category of other prominent producers in the world.
According to Hossein Balash and its director, Ali Atshani, the paper dream is exactly in the south of the city, and it is a re-reading of the needs and divisions of the affected groups that are growing and appearing. Perhaps the most important strength of the film is its script and story, which have similarities to the real life story of the people of Zal. On the other hand, good directing and compassionate production have helped the story and the film, and along with the excellent acting of the actors, it has produced a brilliant film.
The paper dream investor and producer is definitely a little different from other movie producers. This producer, at the same time, knows the “upside down” well and enters a difficult game. In other words, at first glance, it is thought that Hossein Balash is gambling his billion-dollar capital in order to recreate one of the most popular cinematic versions, the so-called “art”, based on his hasty commitment to keep the genre alive.
He knows full well that if he walks on this dangerous path, just like the repeated rounds of a ship’s bow in a storm and blizzard, he is doomed to that fate forever. People get acquainted with it, it captures the audience’s feelings, and it directly targets the audience’s emotions.
This is why in most cases, at the box office, Balash achieves wide success. That is, an approach to film making that, on a larger scale, we can see in Hollywood, such as Twelve Years of Slavery and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.
It is noteworthy to mention the work produced by Hossein Balash called” The president’s Mobile Phone” that was made again with the same desires and concerns. It was screened for the first time at the 30th Fajr Film Festival and won the best film from the audience, the best supporting actress (Behnaz Jafari) and the best cinematography (Alireza Zarrindast).
Or “Shark” was another film made with his investment and production, and despite being a comedy, the production of this film was not small and was produced at the height of the outbreak of the Corona virus and at the same time with the closure of cinemas. Due to its sensitive content, the structures of the work faced extensive pressures.
But Hussein Balash persisted strongly as producer. Undoubtedly, it is this perseverance and endurance that has made him a worthy and worthy producer in recent years. What was said was just a part of the turbulent and tumultuous path that Hossein Balash, this promising and ambitious producer of Iranian cinema and probably Turkish cinema, has taken to this day, and certainly in the days and years to come, one must witness his amazing miracles.
Saman Sadeghi Mehr
24.08.2021
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