A few days before director Babak Anvari won a BAFTA for ‘Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer’ for Under The Shadow at the EE British Academy Film Awards, he came to the NFTS to deliver an inspiring masterclass to the students. (If you are a budding screen director and dream of winning a BAFTA, sign up to our Directing Fiction MA open day on March 2nd 2017 - more info here).
Under The Shadow, described in a five star review in The Guardian as a ‘ghostly Iranian gem’, was screened before the Q&A, hosted by Chris Auty, NFTS Head of Producing in addition to Babak’s BAFTA nominated short, Two and Two.
(Still from Under the Shadow)
Babak Anvari also won the Debut Director award at the 2017 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) and Two and Two was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Short Film in 2012. He worked for MTV UK and Ireland as editor and director of music content and directed live performances for artists such as Lady Gaga, Florence & The Machine, Pixie Lott and Tinie Tempah.
According to Babak, the BAFTA nomination he received for his short film ‘opened doors’ although he did experience some resistance from his agent initially when he said he wanted to set his first feature in Tehran and that the language should be Farsi. “I was adamant I wanted to do it!”
(Still from Two and Two)
“Two and Two paved the way for Under the Shadow. I always say, ‘step by step’. Deep inside, I had belief in the film. My friends thought I was crazy and that no one would back a Farsi horror film. I’m glad I kept pushing.”
Chris asked if Babak had learned anything from his job at MTV? “I learned a great deal working as a video editor for music videos but then I started working in reality TV and that gave me the incentive to work on my script!”
Babak attended Westminster University and completed a BA in Film and Television Production. On whether he would recommend studying film and attending a film school like NFTS, Babak had the following to say: “It’s important to make other people’s films; I’m very glad I did it. I have a close circle of friends as a result as well including one who is at the NFTS now (Mohsen Shah, Screenwriting MA)!”
“Once Under The Shadow was optioned by Wigwam Films, we spent a year developing the script and removed 10 minutes in the edit. We got rid of some aspects that are not necessary for the plot. Later you realise it’s more fun to hint at things and not spoon feed the audience.”
It was important to Babak that the lead character, Shideh, ‘is a 3D character with flaws and that her journey is believable. Authenticity is important to me’.
Chris asked Babak if he knew how he would make Under The Shadow. “I knew from day one that I couldn’t make the film in Tehran. For example, if I had made it there, the female character would have had to cover up inside her home and that’s not realistic so I chose to shoot in Amman. We shot in an apartment block in Jordan and cut the film in the UK. The shoot took 21 days and required a lot of planning due to the budget. The only way to tackle a low budget movie successfully is to plan beforehand.”
Under The Shadow was bought by Netflix before it aired at Sundance Film Festival but they allowed it to run in theatres with a three month theatrical window. “There was a lot of buzz about the film at Sundance because Netflix had bought it.”
On whether Babak initially wrote in English or Farsi, Babak said: “I wrote in Farsi and then translated it as the producers don’t speak Farsi. This forced me to do rewrites and revise the script. The next one is in English though! It’s a noir thriller set in London and backed by Film4 – I got Farsi out of my system for now!”
