Cate Blanchett discussed giving “absolute freedom” to filmmakers supported by her Displacement Film Fund, which screened five shorts by acclaimed directors in Tokyo today (October 30).
The actress and DFF co-founder was joined by exiled Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof and Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, who presented their latest shorts at Tokyo International Film Festival.
“Part of the reason for developing the fund is so the films and the voices of these extraordinary artists could be seen more broadly, not only as individual filmmakers, but as a cohort, as a collective,” said Blanchett.
“Displacement is a global challenge. Sometimes cinema is a place to escape, but equally, it’s a place to deeply connect with the times in which we live… There’s a chance to dispel the toxic narrative that is often around the displaced person’s experience, because being displaced is not the defining characteristic of a person.”
DFF was established last year to champion and fund the work of displaced filmmakers, or filmmakers with a proven track record in creating authentic storytelling focused on the experiences of displaced people. It is backed by International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR)’s Hubert Bals Fund.
“What was important to us at the fund was that we gave the filmmakers absolute freedom to speak about any issue or make a story about anything from any point of view,” Blanchett added. “It didn’t necessarily have to directly speak to displacement, but it was important to us that the filmmakers have either a lived experience of displacement or an understanding or a sympathy for that experience.”
Rasoulof discussed Sense Of Water, his first shoot outside of Iran, and explained the difficulties of shooting in German as well as his native Farsi.
“Language is about how you convey your own feelings and your way of thinking to the other person,” said Rasoulof. “Anytime I try to translate into a different language, I feel as if my mother tongue, the texture in the words, the feelings that I have, will be lost. I won’t be able to retain as much of that in the language that I’m trying to learn as my second language.
“So I had a sense of fear about the second language and when the fund offered me this opportunity, I really wanted to use it to look very carefully at my own personal issues from a personal perspective.”
Rasoulof fled to Germany in May 2024 after receiving a jail and flogging sentence from Iranian authorities for directing The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, which won the special jury prize at Cannes that same month.
Sense Of Water, which premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) earlier this year, tells the partially autobiographical story of an Iranian writer, played by Ali Nourani, who begins an affair with a woman after moving to Germany as he struggles with the pain of exile.
The 40-minute film is handled by Films Boutique and produced through Run Way Pictures. Rasoulof previously won the Golden Bear for There Is No Evil at the Berlinale in 2020.
Further shorts backed by the DFF include Allies In Exile by Syria’s Hasan Kattan; Rotation by Ukraine’s Maryna Er Gorbach; and Whispers Of A Burning Scent by Somalia’s Mo Harawe.
The films are rounded out by Super Afghan Gym by Sadat, whose feature No Good Men was the opening film of this year’s Berlinale.
As the daughter of parents who fled to Iran during the Soviet–Afghan War in 1979, she endured displacement through personal experiences of racism and sexism, but also pointed out that displacement “is a universal thing”, whether you don’t feel at home within a new country or even your own body.
TIFF’s 39th edition runs from October 26 to November 4.
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