TEHRAN – Filmmaker Sirus Alvand has said that the extensive use of internet services during the pandemic makes online life part and parcel of people’s ultimate fate this year.

“Perhaps we will soon witness online wedding ceremonies in the near future,” Alvand joked.

Alvand who is preparing his latest movie “There at the Same Time” for online screening, added, “Many online funeral ceremonies have been held these days. I gave an online speech at the funeral ceremony of filmmaker Siamak Shayeqi, so why not online film screenings or even online weddings?” he remarked.

“All over the world, a number of film, music and opera programs are all viewed online; this is our ultimate fate this year”, he noted. 

He said that online screening programs help many films, which are ready for public screenings, to have the chance to be watched.

“I personally have experienced that if one film waits too long for a public screening, it will lose its chance to be seen, because it has to deal with so many other onscreen films,” he said. 

“So if a series of films is screened online, other films will have greater opportunity to go on screen,” he said.

“As long as people realize that a film, which goes online, is the product of a large team that has worked on it for at least a year, they will not choose to watch films illegally,” he explained.

“There at the Same Time” tells the story of Rana and Amir who have begun their life in an old district in the suburban area.

“People may like or dislike the film, but the film enjoys a new story. Parviz Parastui plays the role of an Iranian-Armenian Christian and my daughter Mahur is acting in my film for the first time,” he said.

Alvand said that he is spending his time during the pandemic reading books and working on two screenplays.

“I also watched again some of the old classics I keep in my archive and I wanted to see how I felt towards them after all these years,” he said.

“I watched films by Hitchcock and several foreign filmmakers as well as some Iranian films by Masud Kimiai and Dariush Mehrjui, and I discovered that they are powerful films and are still interesting for me to watch,” he added. 

“I also watched my own film ‘Underwater Scream’ and I found it was still interesting,” he said.

Alvand said that he is planning to resume his online screenwriting and acting classes soon. 

“Once for Ever”, “The Intruder”, “Cargo” and “Corrupt Hands” are among films by Alvand.

Sirus Alvand received a lifetime achievement award at the 21st Iran Cinema Celebration in August 2019.

Photo: Filmmaker Sirus Alvand in an undated photo.

RM/MMS/YAW