Filmgoers at Cannes thrilled by “A Respectable Family”: Iranian producer

TEHRAN,May 22(MNA) – The Iranian drama “A Respectable Family” thrilled filmgoers in its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday, the producer said on Monday. It was a great surprise that non-Iranian filmgoers’ were able to relate to the Sacred Defense (1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war) and the concept of martyrdom, which are themes of the film, Mohammad Afarideh told Mehr New Agency. “A Respectable Family” is Masud Bakhshi’s debut feature. It is about Arash, an Iranian academic who lives in the West. He returns to Iran to teach in Shiraz, a city far from Tehran, where his mother lives. After being drawn into a series of domestic and financial problems, he is reminded of the hardships of his childhood at the beginning of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. “The film has an Iranian storyline, but the structure Bakhshi has chosen for the dialogue helps attract foreign audiences as well,” Afarideh said. A major part of the plot tells the story of a man who got entangled in the tragedy of war and the film also is somehow a narration of the liberation of Khorramshahr, which occurred 30 years ago, he added. The movie is an entry to the Directors’ Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival. “A Respectable Family” was edited by French editor Jacques Comets. Babak Hamidian, Mehrdad Sediqian, Ahu Kheradmand, and Behnaz Jafari are the main members of the cast.