Recycled materials were used In 70% of Queen Alishoun’s scenery, Ebrahim Nouravar, the director of the movie Queen Alishoun, said in a press conference after the first screening of the film at the 35th Isfahan International Children and Youth Film Festival.
According to the Young Journalists Committee of the festival, Nouravar highlighted the purpose and message of Queen Alishoun:
The message of the film is to love nature and protect it, which has its own unique reason for everyone. The three-thousand-year-old Alishoun tree was broken in a storm due to negligence, and the idea of the film was formed from here in my mind.
Explaining the reason for using dubbing instead, he added that the actors had their first film experience and some of them did not even had experience in Drama. Also, they were from different cities and had different dialects, so we had to cover some of these weaknesses with dubbing.
“And a very important reason was to make a unique movie! Being different was my goal from the beginning, which I tried to maintain in lighting, colouring and stage design”, he noted.
Nouravar, who had been criticized for his Westernism, objected that “I am interested in the culture of Ireland and its folklore fairy tales. However, my main goal has been to showcase Iranian culture. The names of the characters were apparently western, while they had Iranian roots and origins. For example, Ador means fire-starter, which should match the character’s personality”.
According to him, the name of Queen Alishoun is also the name of an old tree in Taiwan that did not refer to the country, culture or religion in particular.
“Making a fantasy film is expensive and the producer did not accompany me. I have to mention recycled materials were used In 70% of Queen Alishoun’s scenery,” the director emphasized.
The 35th International Film Festival for Children and Youth is taking place in Isfahan from October 7 to 12, 2023.
