ROSKINO: Film cooperation between Iran and Russia – new perspectives

During the ROSKINO film location tour, Iranian cinematographers highly appreciated the Moscow film cluster and Novgorod ancient Russian landscapes, and also discussed the creation of joint films and animations with Russian companies.

In early December, ROSKINO, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Russia, organized a film location tour of representatives of the film industry of the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of events aimed at international promotion of Russian regional filming locations.

The program of the visit included visits to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Veliky Novgorod.This is not the first visit by Iranian producers to get acquainted with potential filming locations in Russia and strengthen cooperation with the Russian film industry: earlier, in July this year, Iranian colleagues had already come to Moscow as part of the Days of Iranian Cinema organized by ROSKINO, met with representatives of Russian companies, visited VGIK.

Iranian filmmakers also visited St. Petersburg in August and took part in the Lendoc Film Festival.

The December visit became more intense. The Iranian delegation included director Alireza Samadi; Deputy Director for Economic Development of the Farabi Film Foundation Alireza Hayihiharib; head of the Avini Institute of Feature and Documentary Films Javad Ezzati; producer Seidmahdi Javadi; producer of films and TV series, former head of the Farabi Cinema Foundation; producers Syed Saber Emami and Mohammadreza Shafiei, actor and director Hadi Hejazifar.In Moscow, the Iranian guests visited the Metmash film cluster and the Moskino film Park, noting the high level of film production infrastructure.

The producers met with a resident of the Metmash cluster, a full-cycle company 1-2-3 Production, discussing the possibilities of joint projects. The Moskino Film Park impressed foreign cinematographers with the scale of the site: it is a unique world-class complex, the first stage of which was opened in August this year. The area of the film park will be more than 320 hectares; among the locations for filming are the streets of cities and rural settlements, historical sites (Cowboy Town, Ancient Russian City, etc.), special facilities (airplane, steam locomotive, train station, airport), and much more.

Also, the representatives of Iran were presented with the unique Moscow digital film platform film.moscow – a single access point to the entire range of urban services and services for the organization of filming and film production. The guests were interested in the possibility of localizing the film platform in Farsi and integrating information about filming sites in other regions and countries into it.

At a meeting with YARKO animation company Iranian cinematographers showed the works of local (Iranian) animation companies in 2D and 3D formats, and representatives of YARKO presented their projects and talked about the development of the animation industry in Russia. The parties also discussed the project of an animated film that can be created jointly.

Iranian cinematographers spent two eventful days in the Novgorod region. The producers noted that the timing for the location tour was very well chosen: Iranian cinema just needs winter locations and weather conditions in which to shoot winter scenes.The program of the visit included an excursion to the Valery Rubtsov Film Museum and a visit to the historical sites of Veliky Novgorod, which traditionally become a film set for Russian and foreign cinematographers: the Kremlin, the Trading Side, the Museum of Folk Wooden Architecture “Vitoslavlitsy”.
The dialogue on cooperation continued in St. Petersburg: at the Lendok film studio, the guests immersed themselves in the history of Russian cinema, as well as got acquainted with Russian international film projects. Location 360 has prepared a tour of the most popular filming locations in St. Petersburg for Iranian colleagues.As part of the film location tour, several round tables were held, united by the theme “The film dialogue of Russia and Iran: what unites the film industry of the two countries”.