The production of the documentary "The world, the imagination of God" directed by Aida Ansari and produced by Behrooz Neshan began in June 2020, and after the end of filming on Qeshm Island, Mahmoud Reza Sani started editing process.
“The world, the imagination of God ” deals with the life and culture of the people of southern Iran and their experience in ecstasy, imagination and connection.
Looking at the fact that human beings have always been looking for a way to escape from separation and reach a connection since the beginning of creation, this film depicts a female narrative of the life of a family in the village of Salkh on Qeshm Island. They face diversity.
When the post production will finish, the documentary “The world, the imagination of God" , a new production of the Emofis Film School, could begin international distribution.
According to Ansari, who is a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, “The world, the imagination of God" is about the lives of people who may seem to have normal, but they have a life mixed with dreams and fantasies. Materialism is not the principle of life for them, it really is not.
“I have been researching Qeshm Island and beautiful Hormozgan in general for two years. In the beginning, I was fascinated by the women of that area. Maybe this interest is due to the fact that I had studied in the field of fashion and clothing.
She explained about the reason that she chose Hormozgan region as the location: “The women's clothes of this region have many beauties besides covering and hijab. The color used in these clothes is very attractive. Especially the burqa which is a hijab and a lot of research has been done on it. Initially, I entered this area to address the importance of the burqa and its role in women's lives, because that was the topic of my thesis.”
She added: “My trip to this area had two reasons. Qeshm is very pristine and untouched and has remained particularly culturally unknown. Then I found a family and their lives were beautiful and special to me.These reasons motivated me to make a movie about them. So t not only the people of Iran, but also other people of the world get acquainted with this culture. Today, many countries in the world have made the tourism industry a priority. Undoubtedly, Iran can have many successes in this field with its historical monuments and subcultures. For me, the lifestyle of these people was very attractive and spectacular, Warm-hearted people who do other things and sailing, People who have no entertainment have been able to keep the customs of their ancestors alive and live with them. Although with the development of social networks these days we see many images of these lands, but I think that part of the life of them has been less shown in documentaries and movies.”
Ansari made the film during the outbreak of the Corona virus; she also encountered problems during filming.
She said: “We traveled to Hormozgan for a few days and the whole area was quarantined. Of course, we had concerns that fortunately we did not have problems with following health protocols. But the outbreak of Covid-19 disease during filming caused us a lot of difficulties. Before us colleagues had traveled to that land, which unfortunately had taken pictures that had caused problems for some residents. Anyway, we had to be very close to the people of this area for this film. Honestly, according to our culture, it is not easy to enter people's private lives, especially if you are a woman. But when they saw a lot of interest and intimacy with themselves, they softened. I wore the local dress of the land, respected their customs, and tried to accompany them in the daily affairs of life.”
She continued: “The film is currently in editing room. I try to achieve the best result. This film is a slice of the lives of people who live in the southernmost point of Iran and the border lands. In the heart of Qeshm Free Zone, there are villages where people live with the least facilities. But it is interesting that they live with their customs without complaining. Despite many deprivations, this peace in life was very strange to me. How can you live such a comfortable life with all these shortcomings? Why do we, who live in modern cities with very good facilities, not have this peace? I do not want to dwell on this issue anymore, I just say that to find this answer, be sure to watch this movie”.
She thought the film can relate to the audience, “I wanted my audience to watch this film through the lens of my camera, which I am a woman. Maybe that's why I took the camera myself and tried to do it myself. I even tried to get help from a woman to edit the film to maintain this sense of femininity in the film. For these reasons, I have high hopes that the film will be noticed by the audienc