Interviews

Interview: Mani Haghighi – Pig | 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival

Published on March 7, 2018

A thematic combination of his two last works A Dragon Arrives! (2016) and 50 Kilos of Sour Cherries (2016), Mani Haghighi‘s latest film follows the “tragic-comedy” structure employing intellectual characteristics of the former and the popular storytelling method of the later. Comparatively, Pig (Khook) is an anomaly in terms of the Iranian cinema output we find at international festivals with its whodunit tale featuring a blacklisted filmmaker (Hasan Majuni) who takes inventory of a killing spree involving his filmmaker contemporaries and then needs to map his own diabolical plan to restore his reputation as he figures out if he is next.

A socially relevant (seventh feature) film that is in constant flux, Pig takes a jab at the irresponsibility found in journalism, the toxicity levels found in social media and the fetishization of celeb culture. Presented in Competition at the 2018 Berlin Intl. Film Festival, I had the chance to sit with Mani Haghighi to discuss topical items such as working with genre film templates, the role of music and costume design within this feature.

Amir Ganjavie

Amir Ganjavie, a Ph.D. in communication and culture, is a Toronto-based writer, cultural citric, festival director, community activist and filmmaker. Fascinated by the issue of alternative and utopian space in modern urban settings and cinema, Amir has published several articles on utopia and two books, one on utopia (Le rÃ´le de la pensÃ©e utopique dans lâamÃ©nagement des villes de demain) and the other on walkable neighbourhoods (Pour une ville qui marche). He has recently co-edited two special volumes on Iranian cinema for film International and Asian Cinema and edited a Humanities of the Other: An essay collection on the Dardanne Brothers (in Persian). Aside from academia, he writes for MovieMaker, Filmint, Mubi, Senses of Cinema, Offscreen and Brightlight. Amir is very active in the community. He serves as the CEO of CineIran Festival and Phoenix Cultural Centre of Toronto. He is also the founding member of NaMaNa Cinema. He has recently directed/produced a long feature film in Canada, named Pendulum. His top 2 theatrical release for 2017: IldikÃ³ Enyedi's On Body and Soul and Michel Hazanavicius's Redoubtable.