NEW RELEASE:

"The Friend's House" 

SYNOPSIS:

A young Iranian documentary filmmaker, Mohammad Reza Eyni, decides to make a portrait documentary film about the most prominent Iranian painter, Abolghasem Saidi, who moved to Paris seventy years ago. With Saidi’s agreement, the 32-year-old filmmaker goes to Paris to start the film, only to face closed doors.

Developed at DEFC, “The Friend’s House” is the story of two generations, where each aims to understand and challenge another’s perspective. More than a film portrait about Saidi, throughout the process of filmmaking, the filmmaker starts to question and challenge himself. 

CREDITS:

Director/Producer: Mohammad Reza Eyni

Cinematographer: Mohammad Reza Eyni

Editors: Mohammad Reza Eyni and Sara Khaki

Developed at Documentary and Experimental Film Center (DEFC)

Related News: 

• The Friend’s House had its premiere at the Middle East Now Film Festival!

• Huffington Post Review of “The Friend’s House” written by, Luciana Borsatti:

  “Mohammad Reza Eyni questions contemporary art, who brought The friend's house to Florence, an unpublished portrait of Abolghasem Saidi, an important Iranian painter who has lived in Paris for 70 years.”

• Ebrahim Golestan, one of the most influential pioneers of Iranian modern cinema and literature also writes about “The Friend’s House”:

  “The film is suitably a challenging and attractive and good product, very much on the right track. The construction of the story as pictured is very good although it is mostly about your expectation of the subject, Saidi, and certainly not the subject himself as a painter. However, this seems acceptable when considering the title of the film. All the various pictures of Paris and its streets, narrow and wide, could be taken as parts of the search in answering the question of the title.”

• A note from Ali Dehbashi, a noted Iranian critique, and journalist:

  “THE FRIEND’S HOUSE, directed by Mohammad Reza Eyni, was meant to illustrate a portrait of Abolghasem Saiedi, one of the most important contemporary Iranian-born Parisian-based artists. This documentary, however, goes beyond what we may know of portrayal films and aims to dig deeper into universal themes such as life, friendship, and art. This is exactly what makes this film one of the most special Iranian documentaries of our time.”