Iranian official asks filmmakers to reconcile people with cinema

TEHRAN,Dec.16(MNA) -- The Iran Cinema Organization (ICO) recently entered into negotiations with a number of prominent filmmakers to help the organization reconcile people with cinema. ICO Director Hojjatollah Ayyubi has asked directors Abbas Kiarostami, Bahman Farmanara, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Khosro Sinaii, Nasser Taqvaii and Hassan Fat’hi to resume their careers in Iran. The directors have stopped or limited their film careers due to the strict control the former cultural officials in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration had on filmmaking in the country. “These filmmakers will return after years of interruption and their return will achieve reconciliation between people and cinema,” Ayyubi said on Saturday during the inauguration ceremony of the Kurosh Cinema Complex, which was established by the private sector in Tehran. He added that the resumption of activity by the filmmakers would create a boom in box office receipts.