"My hand will break before I let you turn me into my own censor" / Why did Bahram Beyzaei return the Crystal Simorgh for "The Travelers"?

Years ago, Bahram Beyzaei, the renowned Iranian filmmaker, sent back his Crystal Simorgh, which had been awarded to him for the film The Travelers, after writing a harsh letter to the then-officials of Iran's film sector.

According to Ambassador Arjan's report, quoted by Ambassador Arjan, in December 2002, the head of the Expediency Council Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in an interview with Kayhan newspaper in defense of his government's cultural policies: "When you want to imitate, you imitate Mr. Bayzaei's movie, which you say was censored for 30 seconds. Finally, the Ministry of Education did not put down the knife of censorship, but we tried to have cinema artists with us and with their help to train more successful forces in all important sectors so that there is no need for censorship."

Hashemi Rafsanjani is referring to the movie "Travellers", the eighth feature film by Bahram Beizai. The film he made in 1369 and 1370 won 6 Crystal Simorghs and was nominated for 4 Crystal Simorghs from the 10th Fajr Film Festival in 1370, but its director was not awarded the best director award of this festival. The film that was recognized as the best film of the 1370s in the 1380 voting of Dunyai Zadab magazine.

Give all the prizes to the oval!

In an interview with Abdullah Esfandiari in 2016, Fereydun Jirani mentioned that he heard from Rasool Malaqlipour, one of the judges of this festival, that Seyyed Mohammad Beheshti Shirazi, the secretary of the festival, said in the jury meeting that "Give all the awards to Beidai if you want to make someone unemployed" and recommended that the best director award should not be given to Bahram Beidai. In the end, it was decided that all the awards would not go to this film, so that Bahram Bayzaei would not get into common problems and become unemployed. Of course, Baizai won the special prize of the jury. In a vote in 1401, the opening sequence of Passengers was recognized as the best opening sequence in the history of Iranian cinema.

In a speech on February 11, 2011 at Stanford University, Baizai said that he made this film in response to Ali Hatami's film Mother. Describing his film, he said: Passengers is a very, very simple film in praise of life and new hopes. That's it.

Jamshid Arjamand, a film critic, in an article called "Passengers, the opening of Band Ajl?" He writes: Begman Passengers is the most bitter and serious film in the works of Bahram Bayzaei, our thoughtful and bitter filmmaker.

Bahram Bayzaei wrote the plot of the film in 1354 and wrote its script in 1368. Hamid Saarigian also helped Baizai in the acting of this film. The story of travelers starring Jamlia Sheikhi, Homa Roosta, Majid Mozafari, Fatemeh Motamedarya, Enayat Bakshi, etc. is as follows:

Mehtab, Maherkh's sister, along with her husband and two young sons, travel from the north of Iran to Tehran in a rented car to bring the heirloom mirror of the family to Maherkh's wedding party. On the way, a village woman travels with him; And then they all die in an accident with an oil tanker. The news reaches the family and the wedding turns into mourning. Although the police reports show the truth of the accident and the death of the passengers, there is no sign of the legacy mirror. While all the families have accepted the death of the travelers, the old woman does not give up her heart to mourn and keeps her eyes on the road until Mehtab arrives with the mirror of Novaros. Against the wishes of the old woman, mourning is held and relatives of the dead, the tanker driver and his student, officers and others participate in the ceremony. But Maherkh is found in a distressed state in a white wedding dress. Among the various reactions of those present, Mehtab and other dead people suddenly arrive with a hereditary mirror. The reflection of the light in the mirror drowns them in light. Mehtab hands over the mirror to Maherkh so that the wedding can take place.

This oval film was faced with many amendments for the release and finally the film screening in 1371 faced problems. In response to the amendments, Bahram Bayzaei expressed his strong objection to the then officials of the country's cinema in a letter. In a letter in November 1371, he addressed the officials at the time as follows: When you sent a message three months ago that due to the chaotic atmosphere outside, the show of the passengers of a program would be delayed from its turn in the set schedule so that you could support it, even my body did not believe that it was a benevolent proposal...

Beyzaei continued: You can watch any movie until you find a fault in it, and you, who lead the vote of the Council with your behavior, must know this well... Give me the most moral movie in the world and I will show a hundred faults in it. But you haven't even found this in travelers and now you have to censor light. I mean, what is the adjustment of this scene or that scene? This film was made, edited and finished a year ago, and last August, it received a screening permit from you and its case was closed, and it should have been shown in September and October, according to your schedule. where are you And what do you mean that every day you order us to ask you to destroy our film? Why should we be ordered to request that the screening of our film be delayed?

This movie director added: Don't the administrations know any other way than taking hostages? Aren't we from the same country and you are conquerors and we are defeated? I mean, why do you read out a list every day even without official notification (as there is no proof among us) so that we can write in our own handwriting, without any reason, according to it, we can pull out materials from the film with our own hands? What would be left of passengers if I implemented your elimination list every time? And what kind of censorship by the manufacturer? Don't your employees get paid for this? Is censorship separate for each manufacturer and what is allowed for one manufacturer is prohibited for another?

Baizai wrote: We have observed the same lawlessness. Look at the movies on your screen to see if you can make more featureless than passengers. How long are you going to beat me with the oval sensitivity stick? ... Passengers does not have obscenity and bad mouth allowed for one, nor laughter and mockery allowed for another, nor instruments and beats allowed for this group, nor harsh social criticism allowed for another group. Are you sure it doesn't have a major chance for sale except for its construction and dignity that you want to mix with new deletions? I will break my hand and I will not let you make me my own censor. I still don't want to spend the night admitting that you buggers ruined the wretched Maybe Another Time, a movie whose only problem was that it wasn't bad enough.

He added: 9 months have passed since the screening of Passengers at the Fajr Film Festival. A movie that no one had a problem with. You have kept travelers for 9 months to find meaning in it. why And several committees have re-examined it with the intention and mission of finding its forms. Why should you find something wrong with it? Why did you decide that there must be a problem in the movie El Baizai? The other films in the festival that were presented at the same time as Travelers were all shown at festivals abroad a week or two later with your license. Why did you have to allow passengers to show for 9 months? Is it taking so long to find bugs? It must have been 9 months before your agents had any problems in the movie. Why did I have to be anxious for 9 months and my life was paralyzed from sun to sun?

You left a heavy debt on my hands

Bayzaei continued: Since the showing of Passengers at the 10th Fajr Film Festival until now, the council has changed its words several times regarding the false problems of the movie Passengers, and this is a clear sign of the baselessness of the fake problems of the council, which knows that there is no problem with the film and that the problem is in the atmosphere. So should the cinema bear the consequences of the power struggle of those outside? Are groups going to curse me? Well, what were they doing until today? ... Do you think that a group that plans to destroy a film or a producer for non-cultural reasons will change their vote by removing scenes from the film? I would have cursed if I had made their popular movies too... If cosmonauts and surah writers and motorcyclists are going to decide the fate of our movie screening, then why do we present our movies to you?

This director also mentioned his financial problems: It doesn't matter to me in the slightest that you didn't show my film anywhere in the world with the obvious lie of not being ready, but it's important that I'm not a borrower of your banks. I, whose salary for directing all the films of my life in the last 20 years does not reach 400 thousand tomans, thanks to your policies, I owe passengers five and a half million tomans. I made this film with illness, poverty and bank loans, and with three years of running without a single dinar of salary or income. I censored myself 100 times more than any filmmaker in the world can imagine while making this film.

Beyzaei continued: After dozens of councils read the script of Travelers word for word and did not find any fault in it, and after dozens of officials saw the film image by image and did not see any fault in it, the film was screened at the Fajr Festival, and after that, hundreds of people, including yourself, and even scholars and scholars, shook my hand, and you awarded it with 6 crystal simorghs. Did the passengers have so many problems and you and all those people did not understand it?... Are we captives and toys or are you not responsible for the cinema and we came by mistake?

He stated in the conclusion: Along with this letter, I am sending back the Crystal Simorgh Award of the 10th Fajr Film Festival, which was given to me by the same Ministry of Guidance nine months ago for this film, along with the relevant certificate to the Vice-Chancellor of Cinema Affairs, and I want my film to be released in the best conditions, correct and complete, as every film deserves... As the owner of the intellectual rights of Passengers, I will not allow anyone to remove even a single bit from the movie Passengers even after my death. As long as this profession is dishonored in my homeland, there is no place for my film and I will not allow anyone to gain respect by showing it abroad.

Despite the writing of this letter by the director of the film, the film was released with some scenes removed, and Bahram Bayzaei did not make another film until 10 years after making Voyagers. The full version of this movie was finally shown in the second half of November, 10 years later, in 2001, during the second government of reforms, in Tehran's Sepideh cinema.