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Fireflies, by Bani Khoshnoudi, was presented at the 16th FICM

Gustavo R. Gallardo

The Iranian filmmaker, Bani Khoshnoudi, presented her film Fireflies (2018) during the 16th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). Elsa Reyes, producer, and actors Arash Marandi and Luis Alberti were also present during the event.

Fireflies tells the story of Ramin, a young Iranian who arrived by mistake in Veracruz, a port from which he wants to leave to return to his loved ones, who little by little seem to forget him. Sadness, guilt and the search for a better life at times sink him in despair, but he does not allow anything to bring him down.

"People are escaping repression, as an immigrant I'm living quite well, but there are a lot of people who have a terrible time," said Bani Khoshnoudi, who started the project four years ago based on her own experience as a migrant, when she fled the war in Iran in the eighties.

The film, which was filmed in Veracruz, warns on several occasions about the violence that exists in the region contrasted with its port and carnival image. "Veracruz is very symbolic, a little forgotten, with a very strong past. I think it is a place that bears many traces of that difficult history," Khoshnoudi commented.

"I spent several years writing the screenplay, I visited the port a lot, I was looking for actors in the gay community in Iran, in Turkey, that's how I found Arash," he said.

Actor Arash Marandi said that he received footage from interviews conducted by the director with young Iranian exiles, in order to acknowledge himself with Ramin, his character. "For seven months I received material before coming to Mexico because I live in Germany, we spent a lot of time talking about the character," he said.

On the other hand, Dominican actor Luis Alberti, who plays a Central American migrant, said his character portrays "the way dreams have become wounds, migration is a wound that puts us all in one place, and I think that this character portrays that, the fireflies as scars that meet."

Later, with the presence of FICM vice-president, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, Fireflies was screened this Sunday at 4:00 pm in room 4 of Cinépolis Centro. The film is part of the Mexican Feature Film Selection and is Bani Khoshnoudi's second endeavor as a director.