SEASONLESS
ONE LINE SYNOPSIS:
When a mother is presented with the body of a dead soldier by the Iranian army (Kurdish), she refuses to give up faith that her son will return home.
LONG SYNOPSIS:
It’s twilight. The villagers are burying a burned body of a soldier in a remote area. Among the wailing and mourning, an old woman with a young girl walks, screaming and crying among the crowd. The old woman approaches the body of her son. She is restless and wants to see her son’s face although the mourners try to warn her against it. As she sees the burned, unrecognisable face of the soldier, a dead silence spreads across the crowd. The mother leaves without saying a word as the crowd watches her in shock. She tells the girl—her son’s bride to be, that she doesn’t believe that the body is her son.
Even so, every week, the mother walks a long distance from the village to the cemetery to visit the soldier’s grave and spends some quiet time talking with the buried soldier. While every day she asks the village postman if he has any letters from her son. She listens to the old radio to keep herself up to date on the war against ISIS, in hope of news from her son. The old woman refuses to approve of a grave headstone in the name of her son since she believes he will return one day and instead placed a tree branch above the grave. The old woman sings a lullaby and dances for the buried solider.
Gradually, the young bride who has been her only confidant starts thinking that the old woman has lost her mind. The bride’s brother insists she remarries which she eventually does, leaving the village and the old woman behind. From then on, the old woman continues to visit the grave by herself. Time passes by and the seasons change as the crows fly over the old woman’s cherry garden. The tree branch the old woman had planted above the soldier’s grave has now turned green and the cross of Christ can also be seen above the grave.
After many months of waiting, the old woman shows up at the grave of the unknown soldier with a wheelchair. Her son, injured, has returned from the war and learns that his mother has been talking to a dead soldier who was buried on the land by mistake. And although her son has now returned to her, she continues to visit the soldier’s grave. She will not leave him as he is still a fallen solider – someone’s son, in need of a mother to mourn him.
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Sepehr MikaeilianDirectorBehrouz: A Legend on Screen (Feature Documentary - Writer, Director, Producer), Rhino Season (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), The Swallows in Love (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), Final Whistle (Feature Film - First Assistant Director).
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Sepehr MikaeilianWriterBehrouz: A Legend on Screen (Feature Documentary - Writer, Director, Producer), Rhino Season (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), The Swallows in Love (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), Final Whistle (Feature Film - First Assistant Director).
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Elaheh AzkariWriter
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Ehsan FokaWriter
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Faramarz K-RhaberProducerJill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (Feature Documentary - Producer), Anzacs: Remembering Our Heroes (TV Series Documentary – Producer), Donkey in Lahore (Feature Documentary – Producer, Director), Fahimeh's Story (Feature Documentary – Producer, Director, Writer).
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Bobbi-Lea Dionysius (Executive Producer)ProducerLILI (Feature Documentary – Producer of Marketing & Distribution), Happy Android (Short Documentary – Producer of Marketing & Distribution), Jill Bilcock: Dancing the Invisible (Feature Documentary – Post-Production Assistant), The Master of Folk Art (Short Documentary - Co-Director, Editor)
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Sepehr MikaeilianProducerBehrouz: A Legend on Screen (Feature Documentary - Writer, Director, Producer), Rhino Season (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), The Swallows in Love (Feature Film - First Assistant Director), Final Whistle (Feature Film - First Assistant Director).
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Maryam BoubaniKey Cast"Mom"The Fifth Season, Shabaane Rooz, and Motherhood.
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Diman ZandiKey Cast"Bride"
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Ali HeshmatiKey Cast"Son"
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Project Title (Original Language):BIFASL
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:16 minutes
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Completion Date:July 12, 2019
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Production Budget:17,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Iran, Islamic Republic of
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Country of Filming:Iran, Islamic Republic of
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Language:Kurdish
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Shooting Format:4k
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Sepehr Mikaeilian is an Iranian-born filmmaker living in New York City. He started his studies in performing arts at the Iranian National Radio and Television Academy and later majored in Theatrical Arts at the College of Art and Architecture at the Open University of Iran.
For the past decade Mikailian has been active in various aspects of production in Iranian cinema not only as assistant director and producer, but also as cinematographer, videographer and actor.
His production experience exceeds 20 feature films including assistant to Bahman Ghobadi in ‘No One Knows About Persian Cats’ and ‘Rhino Season’. He was also the production coordinator for over 20 documentaries for Iranian and international venues such as Aljazeerah English, ARTE and Canal Plus.
Mikaeilian began directing and producing his first documentary upon migrating to the
US in 2010. ‘Behrouz: A Legend on Screen’, portrays the life in exile of the legendary Iranian actor Behrooz Vossoughi who has been living in the US for the past 30 years.
My generation of youth has evolved from a catastrophic war that lasted 8 long years and has tarnished the livelihood of millions in the shadow of fear and despair. The outcome of this meaningless war and savage acts orchestrated by political movements are nothing but vast lands of cemeteries filled with tombs of innocent soldiers and patriots.
The recently heightened tensions between the United States and Iran reminds me of the same drum rolls of war that will burn and destroy another generation of youth on both sides. In the game of war, one cannot differentiate between the good guys or the bad guys, and frankly, it does not really matter. The ultimate sacrifice is made by innocent human beings while politicians on both sides are fulfilling their ego and meaningless agenda. While every war comes to an end, we will witness awaiting mothers for their loved ones to come back home, and unfortunately, these waiting journeys will turn to agony and nightmare as countless of soldiers will never return.
We cannot change the past, but we can secure a future for the next generations. If we want to mend the past someday, humanity must unite as one. As a quote by Albert Einstein, “the world is a dangerous place to live, not because of people who are evil, but because of the people who do not do anything about it”.