Absence | Naboodan (2022)
A film by Actor, Writer & Director Ali Mosaffa


absencefilm.eu


"I am deeply convinced that I can't do anything now... I, for my part, am not working, I don't know what can be done at all."

"The screening of the film coincided with the Corona era, and that's why it was not seen much in international festivals. They did not allow the screening in Iran either. Their condition was that many scenes would be deleted. Then I said that I don't want it to be released at all."

"They had content issues. They had made strange apocalyptic inferences. The character they had a problem with was called Sahib Zamani, when I changed his name to Sahib Amani so we could dub him, they said some strange things that I still don't understand, but it was clear to them that the film was made with such a point of view. Of course, part of the reason why it hasn't been seen is my own fault." -- Ali Mosaffa, said recently in a video interview

From award-winning filmmaker Ali Mosaffa, ABSENCE tells the story of an Iranian man who journeys to Prague on a quest to learn more about his father's past as a communist expatriate in Czechoslovakia, where he finds himself in the shoes of a third man who is almost dead and happens to be his half-brother...



“.. the soul is but a manner of being -- not a constant state -- .. any soul may be yours, if you find and follow its undulations. The hereafter may be the full ability of consciously living in any chosen soul, in any number of souls, all of them unconscious of their interchangeable burden. -- Vladimir Nabokov “The real life of Sebastian Knight”

I have always been enchanted by stories in which someone is trying to understand someone else’s predicaments, the situation which brought about his misery and the undulations which directed him to a point of no return. The protagonist is gradually stripped empty of all his own personal pursuits and is instead prepared, like an empty container, to embrace those of another. It would be even more challenging if the second party is absent and the entire clue is what has remained of his life. Absence will be a mystical thriller of that sort.

From another point of view, the Iranian cinema has never had a chance to talk about those who had to escape from the country following the 1953 military coup and the fall of Dr. Mossadegh’s government in Iran. My personal attachment to the life of Iranian expatriates of that era and their adventures comes from one particular case. A friend of my father’s, who after the coup fled to the former Czechoslovakia, spent many years living in Prague and then upon the Islamic revolution in Iran left his Czech family and returned to Iran where he thought he could join his old comrades and pursue his old ideals but shortly after his arrival he was jailed and was never able to join his family again.

Whether they served or betrayed their country is not to be decided here but no one can deny the fact that these people have greatly and strangely influenced the country’s cultural, political and social atmosphere throughout the following years until today.

In this respect, Absence will be an attempt to shed light on a forgotten corner where the histories of Iran and the former Czechoslovakia meet. --Ali Mosaffa



ALI MOSAFFA

WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Ali Mosaffa started acting in 1991. Since then he has acted in many Iranian features and in a French film “Le Passe” by Asghar Farhadi. He started making films in 1998 with a few short films and documentaries, and he directed his first feature in 2005 – “Portrait Of A Lady Far Away”, starring Leila Hatami and Homayoun Ershadi. The film was shortlisted for Sutherland Trophy at Times BFI London Film Festival and won the People’s Choice Award at Chicago IFF, as well as it was nominated for the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary IFF.

His second film, “The Last Step”, starring Leila Hatami, received acclaim from critics and audience worldwide following its international premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF in 2012 and won the international ctitics‘ FIPRESCI Award for the best film and awarded Leila Hatami with the Crystal Globe for Best Actress for her leading role in the film.

He started producing films with his own feature “The Last Step” and then produced a second one – “What’s the Time in Your World”, which won the FIPRESCI Award for the best film in Bussan IFF in 2014. His recent production, “A Hairy Tale”, was acclaimed and awarded in Fajr Film Festival 2019.



SYNOPSIS

Rouzbeh arrives in Prague, away from his troubled family life in Tehran, and drowns himself instead in a research about his father’s past as a communist expatriate in the former Czechoslovakia. Upon visiting the flat where his father used to live 50 years ago, he’s stopped by the police investigating a recent accident. The resident of the flat (Vladimir) has fallen from the window and his father’s name is identical to Rouzbeh’s. This can be no accident and he must accept that Vladimir is his own half brother. As he gets closer to the soul of Vladimir and discovers the hidden corners of his life, he learns a shocking fact about his father’s past, in total contrast to the hero he always admired. This directs him to a course of events identical to the one which brought Vladimir to his fall from the window.

CAST ​
Ali Mosaffa
Zuzana Stivínová
Klára Melíšková
Zuzana Kronerová
Madalena Borová
Petra Nečasová
Antonie Formanová
Leila Hatami


JORDI NIUBÓ

CO-PRODUCER

A Czech-Catalan filmmaker based in Czech Republic. After 15 years of directing documentary films Jordi co-founded in 2005 i/o post, one of the most progressive visual postproduction houses for feature films in Czech Republic that quickly became an important coproduction partner of Czech and foreign filmmakers. Jordi worked as producer on various international projects representing i/o post.


i/o post

Our film company is focused mainly on feature films. We coproduced more than 40 features since 2005. Many of them have been awarded at IFF. Since 2012 we started to co-produce international films and to develop and produce our own features. We have two projects in development: Night of the Whale by Kaveh Daneshmand and I Don’t Like you anymore by Zdenìk Jiráský. While Oroslan, Slovenian-Czech coproduction directed by Matja¾ Ivanišin, is about to be released, in the production stage are Absence directed by Ali Mosaffa and Piargy, Slovak-Czech-Macedonian coproduction directed by Ivo Trajkov.

We are also coproducing new Czech films: A Certain Kind of Silence by the talented Michal Hogenauer and produced by Negative or the documentary Those Who Dance in the Darkness by acclaimed director and producer Jana Ševèíková. In 2017 we produced our own feature Like in a Movie directed by Tomáš Svoboda.

Here is a selection of our coproduction projects:

“Little Crusader”, Václav Kadrnka (Karlovy Vary IFF – Winner – Best Film, Sirius Films) ;
“Ice Mother”, Bohdan Sláma (Tribeca – Best Script Award, Negativ);
“A Very Ordinary Citizen”, Majid Barzegar (First Iran-Czech Co-production);
“We are Never Alone”, Petr Václav (Winner of Berlinale Forum, Mimesis);
“Honey Night”, Ivo Trajkov (Macedonian Oscar Entry, Kaval Film);
“Fair Play”, Andrea Sedláèková (15 Nominations for Czech Lion, Best Film IFF Rome, Negativ);
“Flowerbuds”, Zdenìk Jiráský (Czech Lion – Best Movie, Director, DOP, Actor, IFF Busan Best Feature, IFF Chicago – Best Feature, Cineart);
“Heart Beat 3D”, Jan Nìmec (First Czech 3D film, JNF);
“Foxes”, Mira Fornay (Official Selection 66th IFF Venezia and 14th IFF Busan, Cineart).


SUPPORTED BY

DEVELOPMENT

    Supported by Czech Film Fund
    Presented at Karlovy Vary IFF Pitch & Feedback
    Supported by Creative Europe MEDIA

PRODUCTION

    Supported by Slovak Audiovisual Fund
    Supported by Prague Film Fund