Some 300 people attended the invitation-only premiere of a feature-length documentary film titled “XSunami” (“Memoirs of a Porn Star”) at the Hoveyze Multiplex Cinema in the holy city of Mashhad, capital of the northeastern province of Khorasan Razavi, on November 11.
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The film is about a porn actress whose life story sheds light on the sexual revolution and on the history of lifestyle choices in American society.
The writer and director of the documentary, Mohsen Aghaei, has strong ties to the Cultural Front of the Islamic Revolution. Mohammad Reza Borouni and Avash Arts and Cultural Foundation have, respectively, produced and distributed the film.
According to the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s Organization of Cinema and Audiovisual Affairs, the film’s producers had distributed the film before getting an official permit for its release.
In a letter dated November 10, Mohammad Reza Farji, the head of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance’s Film Committee, which supervises the release and distribution of movies, urged Doctor Morvarid, the head of the Culture Ministry’s office in Khorasan Razavi, to ban the documentary until its producers have secured a permit for its release.
“No tickets were sold to the one-off invitation-only event at the Hoveyze [Multiplex Cinema],” Mr. Fajri was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) on November 15. “There were, however, some delays in issuing a permit for its screening, which prompted the managers of Hoveyze to get verbal approval from the Culture Ministry’s office in Khorasan Razavi.”
“The theater was so packed that it was standing room only,” the Mehr News Agency said on November 11.
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Before the start of the film, Mohsen Aghaei, the film’s director, told the audience that it had taken him and his production team three years to complete the project.
“I did not have any children when I started making the film,” Mr. Aghaei was quoted as saying by the Mehr News Agency. “I have completed my military service and have become a father with two children in the past three years.”
Aghaei and the producer of “XSunami” Mohammad Reza Borouni also took part in a panel discussion after the movie.
“The film is about America. We showed it to several Americans who made strange comments. Some of them said that was their reason for leaving the U.S.,” Aghaei said. “I have been researching the subject for two years. Although the situation in Iran is alarming, few children are born out of wedlock in our country. However, some 42 percent of children in America are born out of wedlock.”
“Sex education has been part of the American [school] curriculum since 1981,” Mr. Borouni said. “The film takes a critical view of this policy. American society underwent a sexual revolution, which resulted in rampant promiscuity and moral breakdown. Iranian society has not experienced a sexual revolution, which means that by introducing sex education, we would acknowledge the issue. Some people who do not understand this complex issue try to oversimplify it.”
[Translated from Persian by Fardine Hamidi]
