TEHRAN – The director of the Cinema Organization of Iran (COI) has asked the Iranian Foreign Ministry to help improve film business worldwide.  

Mohammad Khazaei made the request in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani and several of the country’s diplomats, the COI announced in a press release on Tuesday.

“Cinema provides the world a useful window on other cultures, and films are important tools of public diplomacy,” Khazaei said at the meeting, which was attended by Iranian ambassadors to China, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Tunisia, South Africa and Brazil.

He called Iranian films “the most important cultural products” in the country, however, he added that Iranian cinema has a long way to go to achieve an elite status in the international market.

He noted that Iranian cinema really needs regional and international markets and asked the Iranian diplomats to help provide the necessary infrastructure by means of mutual agreements with international film companies and distributors and organizing mutual film festivals with other countries.    

On his part, Kanaani said, “Cinema is our essential tool of public diplomacy and may be utilized in a more highly efficient manner than has been the case in the past for introducing human values and social, moral, religious and revolutionary beliefs to the world.”

He added that the Iranian Foreign Ministry would do its best to help Iranian cinema extend its influence over the international markets.

Photo: Cinema Organization of Iran director Mohammad Khazaei in an undated photo.

MMS/YAW