Films: A tool for human beings’ growth | Ali Reza Panahian

Films help people experience things they don’t usually experience.

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The cinema is more useful than giving a speech for religion. The Holy Prophet (s) said, “Invite people with tools other than your tongue.” Don’t invite people with your tongue. Invite them with your behavior. Behavior can be shown in the cinema. We say many things in speeches, but we are upset that no films have been made about these things. If a film had been made, it could have conveyed the message of ten days of speeches.
Interviewer, “That’s an interesting point!”
We believe the cinema is something for religion. Although, the majority of films in the history of the cinema may not have been in the interest of religion. This mistake has taken place. I think in the future, the cinema will be much more religious.
Interviewer, “So you consider the cinema to be something for religion?”
Films are a tool for conveying messages that cannot easily be conveyed in words. And religion needs films more. The cinema is more useful for religion than it is for other things. The cinema helps people experience things they don’t usually experience. The cinema shouldn’t show those experiences that everyone has experienced.
Interviewer, “What I’ve often heard some people saying is that the cinema is a technology coming from the west! And there is no need for…”
I do not accept this view. Before being the product of western technology and culture, with all its weak points, it is the result of human beings’ wisdom, thought and need. Human beings are seekers.«یُرِیدُ الْإِنْسَانُ لِیَفْجُرَ أَمَامَهُ» [Qur’an 75:5]
He wants to remove the screens blocking his eyes. He wants to do this with the cinema screen. The cinema can be a window to the world around us that we don’t have access to. The fact that this window is being abused by many is another matter. So the nature of cinema can be very religious. It can serve religion very much. We expect a film, a TV serial and other such things to show some truths to people to speed up their movement on the path of growth in life. We expect the cinema to serve not just religion, but to serve human beings much more than this.
This is doable without discussing religious matters or showing pictures of the domes of the shrines. This is doable without a movie being directly religious or being about the Friends of God or historical religious figures. This is doable without making a movie about a Mosque and the place for praying. The cinema can help human beings grow very much.