Venice Winner Arsalan Amiri Returns to HAF With ‘Janava’
Naman Ramachandran Iran’s Arsalan Amiri, who won two awards at Venice for his debut feature “Zalava,” is back at the Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) with his new project, “Janava.” “Zalava,” which was at HAF in 2019, also played at the Toronto, Rotterdam and the Goteborg festivals, among many others. The Farsi-language “Janava” will follow four treasure hunters who embark on a journey to find a lost treasure. Their lives are in danger when they realize a djinn (or genie) is among them and wants to claim the treasure for itself. “My previous film, ‘Zalava,’ focused on the dangerous beliefs of the masses. My second film, ‘Janava,’ focuses on the individual beliefs of characters and how they defy societal norms,” Amiri says. “Belief is my favorite theme to work with. I have faced the good and bad effects of belief in my life — but when these beliefs are warped or taken to extremes by the individual or in politics, it causes the destruction of human societies. My experience living in the Middle East and studying history proves the importance of people’s beliefs. Well, I would also like to make an interesting and entertaining film of course, and this film genre would help to make the concept interesting.”