Shadmehr Rastin: Read the Book ‘Images of the Imaginary World’
According to the Cinemadrame News Agency, Shadmehr Rastin, our country’s renowned screenwriter, introducing the book Images of the Imaginary World by Babak Ahmadi from Nashr-e Markaz (Markaz Publishing), wrote: “Babak Ahmadi taught me another way of watching films. In my youth, when I used to watch films by Bresson and Tarkovsky on the big screen at the Fajr Film Festival back then, it was the articles and books by Babak Ahmadi, Iraj Karimi, and later Majid Eslami that promoted a different way of seeing films.”
“A cinema beyond storytelling, a cinema beyond famous actors and directors, and a cinema that had something to show, spearheaded by Ozu, Bresson, the Dardenne brothers, and the European Wim Wenders.”
“For those who want to familiarize themselves more with the concepts of cinema beyond just writing, the book Images of the Imaginary World introduces them to a different approach regarding cinema, film, and filmmakers. And, of course, Babak Ahmadi is a thinker more than just a film critic. In the book’s preface, Babak Ahmadi expresses a ‘longing’ that motivated him to write the articles in the book:”
“…A number of these articles were written by that longing and a kind of yearning born of love. The desire to attain those moments: Johannes embraces Maren and says: ‘Now sleep, so I can send one of my father’s angels to watch over you all night.’ Noriko turns her head towards the door, more beautiful than ever in her wedding dress, tears welling up at the sight of her father. In the garden, rain falls, and the grandmother sleeps peacefully in white clothes. Thérèse laughs at the little frog. Ivan picks a branch from the oak tree. The boy, who now has neither a father nor a home in the world, pours water at the foot of a dry tree; this is his only safe place in the world.”
