Retouch – 5 Questions for Film Director Kaveh Mazaheri

1. Who or what motivated you to pursue filmmaking?

I feel I have stories to tell and I think I need to tell these stories before I die. These stories are clearly related to my experiences and what has been mentally influenced in my life. The same short film is “Retouch”, although it is not exact similarity to my own life, but I've experienced it somehow in my real life. We have a proverb in Farsi “What comes from the heart will go to the heart".

2. How does your film primarily differentiate or distinguish itself from other work?

Retouch is a story about one day of a woman's life who wants to leave the house in the morning, and suddenly some accident happens to her husband and put him between death and life. Instead of helping him, she decides to stand and watch him die. I have not shown real scenes from her husband treatment and there is almost no reason for what she does. Of course, if I say "absolutely no reason", then it will be a bit exaggerated, and there's really no solid reason to do so. However, in every part of the world where the film is already screened, most audiences, especially women, have been linked to the film and have understood the reason. I can say this is the point makes my movie different from others.

3. What's some of the best advice you've received?

Don’t be so much proud of yourself for what you gain and don’t regret too much for what you lose.

4. What inspired this story, and why did you feel it needed to be told?

Around me, there have been always women who were under pressure but they had never been able to claim the pressure and cruelty they stand. They kept silent and didn’t talk. But the result of this silence is usually is more pressure and cruelty. This cruelty is almost from society, family, friends, spouses, parents and even children. By the women, I simply mean, my mom, my aunts, my grandmothers, my friends and even my colleagues. When the idea of Retouch came to my mind, I thought this story is that I see my daily life and this is one of the stories I want everybody to hear. So I made the movie with my own personal money and also to Iranian Youth Cinema Society and my friends’ help.

What are you hoping audiences will take away from this film?

I wish the audience to think about my movie, not feel good and have a challenge in their minds. I didn’t like to see audiences have a linear result. Honestly, I wanted to make the audience shocked. It is important for me that in the period of this 20 minutes, I could create a real character and somehow complicated with name Maryam who could be in audience minds and memories and won’t be forgotten for a while.