Rotterdam Video Interview: ME, MARYAM, THE CHILDREN AND 26 OTHERS Blurs Boundaries Between Fiction And Reality

What happens when the boundaries between fiction and reality blur, not only on screen, but also during filmmaking itself? In Fiction & Reality – Vice Versa, journalist and filmmaker Ronald Glasbergen sits down with Iranian director Farshad Hashemi, actress and landlady Mahboube Gholami and cinematographer Davood Malik Hosseini to understand the layers of their acclaimed film Me, Maryam, the Children, and 26 Others.

Nominated for the Tiger Competition and premiering at the 53rd International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2024, Hashemi's film is a successful and clever cinematic experiment, in which the boundary between documentary realism and fiction blurs. The film, shot in Iran, partly under the radar thanks to its low budget character, weaves a Chekhovian tableau, an Iranian chamber play in which the making of the film and its protagonists run through the story of the original intended film. As with Chekhov, it is not complexity that triumphs, but intimacy and emotion.

In this short but exclusive film conversation, the interviewer and the core team of the film skim along the unique production process of their film. Along the specific challenge of this film and the role of Mahboube Gholami is discussed. She actually evolved from landlady to actress, somewhat parallel to the film itself that evolved from short film to feature. Together with her tenants, director, leading actor Hashemi, she determines the fabric of the film. Meanwhile, Hosseini's cinematography plays a crucial role in creating the visual language of the film.

As a short film, Fiction & Reality – Vice Versa investigates the nature and origin of the subtle balance on the border between truth and fiction that can make this young Iranian film, but also the broader contemporary Iranian cinema, so convincing.