By Farnoush Aba

Why did you decide to make this film after so many years?

I made a film called "Emigration" three years ago, so this film, I mean "who are we?", was made after three years. Any way every film or art work is the result of a mental exploration which is formed and created in the mind. The subject of this film is one of my mental concerns.

Please explain a little about this film and its subject and tell us how the idea of making this film came to your mind?

I think that one of the most important issues that we face nowadays is the identity crisis that is running inside us. Who are we? And after this, another question may come to our mind: "who could we be?" This is the question that Bahram, I mean the first character of the story, asks himself constantly. Who am I? And this can be everyone else's question.

Bahram thinks that his life is wasted. I have met many young people who told me that their lives and their youth had been wasted for some reasons. I also think that, I have lost many opportunities because of the special conditions of our society. This is how the idea of the film is formed in my mind. The idea which had been on my mind for years and finally turned into a film.

The story of the film is about a man named Bahram who loses the opportunity to live with a girl because of her emigration. Then he finds out that those who raised him are not his true parents. These issues confuse his mind and lead to result in raising some questions which bother him. One of the questions is that, if his true parents had raised him, he would have been someone else.

Unlike Bahram who does not accept his current life and considers his life a wasted life, his friend whose name is Reza and is a craftsman copes with his life, whatever outcome it has for him. All the time Bahram is thinking about that if society had gave him the opportunity, he would been lived as someone else, flourished his talents and showed his abilities. But an incident deprives him from this Possibility. He tells the bird he has brought home to be his companion:

Every man is given the opportunity to live only once and my only opportunity has been wasted. Bahram is the representation of this awareness. This awareness puts Bahram in to the threshold of despair and absurdity. Bahram is the representation of "these losses". Bahram is the symbol of those who say that their lives have been wasted because of the bad conditions. Bahram knows that if the society is in order, life provides many opportunities for people to flourish their talents.

Although Bahram, the main character of the story, is a craftsman, but he is also interested in poetry and literature. Reza is just a craftsman. Explain a little about the friendship of these two main characters of the story, whose only common feature is industry, and tell us why Bahram doesn't have a friend like himself?

Reza was found while the script was being written and he stayed and didn't leave. Maybe because his character is different from Bahram's and so Bahram's personal characteristics can be Seen better beside him. Not only the personality of Reza but also the character of Bahram's wife is different from Bahram's. Bahram says after the Islamic revolution and after the emigration of his beloved girl, he didn't care to whom he marry, with whom he lives and with whom he becomes friend.

So he probably entered to the industry field without any interest and love. Bahram became disappointed and gave up everything when he realized the unorganization, disorder and anarchy of his life.

In this situation it is the others who choose him and he does not choose them. He has lost his power and right to choose. It can be said that it was Reza who became friend with Bahram. When someone becomes mentally disabled due to many problems, it is others who make decisions for him/her.

Bahram and Reza are the symbol and representation of what society stratification or categorization?

Bahram is the symbol of wasted desires or regret of an ideal and desired life which is wasted. Bahram is the result of social determinant. The determinant which is not obvious and is not seen but exists and determines his fate. Bahram knows this. Someone who is born in house number 11 will have a different fate from someone else who is born in the next door house number 12. And neither of these two, have chosen their own fate, but they have been born inside it and inevitably follow it or better to say they are leaded to its end. This example is also applicable for the people of two different countries. Their fate depend on the country in which they were born without any choice.

Bahram perceives and understands this matter consciously and he knows that one of these two persons in these two places may have a bad fate, without having chosen it. It is very painful and grievous for him. He knows that he has not have a right to choose from the beginning of his life.

On the contrary Reza is somewhat pleased and satisfied with everything. Because his mentality, his morality and the conditions of his life is very different from Bahram's. This question that he could be another person may not even comes to his mind and even if it comes to his mind, it will not bother him so much and will not attempt to change it.

He accepts his life as it is and as is destined for him. So for all these reasons, he is free from mental concerns and stresses. Although his business is not running well, when he finds out Bahram is sad, tells him: Come on, Black will take no other hue and it can't get worse. And it means that he also accepts worse conditions. When Bahram shows him the letter of his true parents, at first he is shocked a little, but then says: what difference dose it make whose child you are. When Bahram wants to go to shiraz and finds out who were his true parents, Reza tries to prevent him from going, and says: Maybe they are dead or maybe they were addicted to drugs.

This does not matter much to him or he thinks that what's done is done and Bahram has to get along with it and accept it. Reza is the symbol of people who ask no question. The ultimate thing he wants is to know, not to understand. Reza is looking for the subject of the story, but Bahram is looking for the reason and argument of the story.

Bahram and his wife have marital problems. Because they are far apart emotionally. For this reason after his mother's death, Bahram goes to her house to live alone. And its another wrong choice.

Their world is completely different. Maybe the reason is that they got married and entered to each other's lives by accident. Bahram goes to his mother's house to escape from his chaotic and disturbed life. From the conversation between Bahram and his wife in his mother's house we finds out that Bahram has spent his free times reading books. But his wife doesn't accept it and considers him a hallucinate, and she wonders why he has left her companion and choose the books to associate.

Bahram says books are the only joy in his life and he wishes everyone was in the hallucination of books. None of the characters in this film are to blame, because of their special natures and characters, and because they are in each other's lives by accident.

They did not choose, rather they were be chosen. Bahram gets a chance and opportunity to choose after his mother death. And he chooses being alone. When his wife tells him: What about us? Bahram says there is no us, each of us is living for ourselves. And he is right.

It seems that Bahram chooses a bird as a companion to escape from this life which is not ideal and favorable for him.

That's right. Spending time with birds and animals is to be a substitute to living with mankind. Because living with animals is more pleasant. Being with animals does not bother men. When Bahram sees the bird constantly goes from one side of the cage to the other, he identifies with that bird and says: You have beautiful feathers, but where you can fly to? I also was a rolling stone in my stupidity life and finally become this person you see.

Although now I get a little perception and knowledge but it's not useful for me anymore. Confession to his stupidity is one of the characteristics personal features of Bahram.

Bahram's daughter is not married and she intends to emigrate in future. It seems that the conditions are not appropriate and suitable for her either, but unlike her father, she has not married under these bad circumstances.

Due to the high costs and also unemployment in the society, there is not suitable and proper condition for an appropriate and ideal marriage for Bahram's daughter, Bahram's mother nurse and many other young people in the country. But Bahram is worried about his daughter possible emigration which will make him more lonely. Brahma's daughter belongs to a different generation and she is aware of the differences between her parents, that's why unlike her mother who wants Bahram to come back home, she is agree with that his father lives alone, so as she says he will get rid of their complaints and grumbles.

It's true that Bahram lives with despair and a kind of Existentialism. But he does not accept what society determines for him. It means that he does not accept what is given to him, even if he can't change it or choose another path for his life.

Bahram knows that, this is not what he deserves from life. He knows he deserves more. Although he can't change the path of his life, but as you said he does not accept the current situation and unlike Reza, he wants to know, wants to find the reasons, and wants to understand. That's why he asks a lot of questions. Someone who asks about things, will change the things. Bahram says in the psychology office: The most part of my life is wasted. Because I didn't choose this path of life, rather I was laid to this path.

Nevertheless the psychologist tells him: It's true that there is determinism but there is always a seconda.