Feryal Behzad, Fantasy and Imagination in Kids and Teen’s Cinema
By: Mahgan Farhang,Researcher and Writer of Children and Teenagers Cinema, Member of CIFEJ
 
This article is based on face-to-face and telephone conversations with  Mrs. Ferial Behzad. The opinion of cinema experts and activists can also be seen in this article.  
Feryal Behzad is a film director who can be remembered as the creator of fantasy and imagination in the cinema of Iran, especially in the field of children and teenagers’ cinema. She is one of the leading female directors in Iranian cinema and is Gholamreza Azadi's wife who is a film producer. Ferial is a director who thinks about children and their world.
She was born in 1955 in Gorgan, Iran. She was graduated from Boston, Massachusetts University College of Film and Television and started her career as an IRIB producer and a director of kids’ shows in 1980. She directed her first film Kakoli in 1989. She introduced fantasy and imagination to kids and teenagers’ Cinema of Iran. “Kakoli” is an entirely Iranian kid’s movie.The screenplay is written by Houshang Moradi Kermani who is an Iranian writer best known for children's and young adult fiction. It was a very successful and essential movie in kids’ fantasy cinema of Iran.
She is a member of CIFEJ and below are some of her other activities:
-The Chairperson of the board of Fanoos-e-Khial Cinematic Institute along with her husband
-A jury member and a guest of International Children's Film Festival of India (1994), Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, North Korea, Netherlands, Cairo International Film Festival For Children (2002), Sweden and  International Film Festival for Children and Youth Awards in Isfahan (2000-2001) and Hamedan
-Instructor of directing in Soore University and IRIB University
Feryal Behzad has made kids’ TV shows such as: ‌“Fire of Heart”, “Tales of Yalda Night”, 2000, “Virus, Team Seven”.And movies such as: “Kakoli” 1989, “The Valley of Butterflies” 1991, “The Invisible Man” 1995, “The Day the Suitor Came”, 1996, “The Loving Swallows”, 2010.
In“The Valley of Butterflies”, Feryal uses ancient tales and Iranian folklore once more and makes the movie based on Persian stories. The movie is about an old astronomer who has three grandchildren. After discovering the date of the eclipse he sends his three grandchildren Rashid, Jamshidand Khorshidto the main land to break the Ghoul’s spell that has deprived people of happiness and welfare. Rashidand Jamshidare held captive but the younger brother, Khorshid, withhis childish thoughts, steps forward to fight the Ghoul of The Mountain , and in the end he restores safety and happiness to his ancestoral land.
“The Invisible Man”, written by Mehdi Sajadechi, is another different work of hers. The movie is about Yusuf, a teenage boy ignored by his family, school and society who turns invisible due to an accident. The movie has a special position and Feryal illustrates the problems between teenagers and their families.
Feryal made other movies including comedies called “The Day the Suitor Came” (1996), andThe Loving Swallows (2010).
She has produced the movie “Sinbad and Sara” in 2018bythedirectorGholamreza Azadi.
Fantasy, imagination and appropriate set design are the main features of her works. She has often mentioned interesting points about working with children. What makes her different from other directors is that she thinks children should be their own heroes.
She once stated:“ ‌Working with children is tough but sweet and lovely. I’ve always loved working with them because children are innocent and friendly; no matter how hard the work is, it will get easier. They are honest and that’s what makes working with them very enjoyable. On the other hand, since they are amateurs we often lose a great deal of our time and this costs us, however, the result is quite sweet.
She thinks movies especially fantasy movies strengthens childrens’ imagination and dreams. She believes in this way children can upgrade their level of thinking and this will help them define their social ideal and be a distinctive individual in a society.
She says the stories of her first movie “Kakoli” and also “Valley of Butterfliesflies are based on Iranian folklore. She is a person who considers stories essential for children. She says:“ The most beautiful stories and the most advanced way of storytelling can be presented in cinema.” The movies she makes for children are necessarily based on fiction and imagination since she believes it to be the way of approaching them.
Feryal understands childrens’ world very well. She says:“ At a certain age, children can feel lonely which is hard for adults to understand so they will make their own imaginary friends. There are plenty of these kids. Like the friendship between Amand and the mice, his connection to the ladle and his imagination about the sky in “Kakoli”.
She emphasises that the directors of childrens’ movies should be patient, since a movie involving children deals with the characteristics of childrens’ world, for instance, playfulness, distraction and forgetting the lines are not unusual due to their age and can be seen very clearly while working with them. Feryal Behzad has crated successful fantasy works in Cinema of Iran and childrens’ cinema, however, the story of Kakoli is a remarkable imaginary tale.
On September, 2018, the thirty first International Film Festival for Children and Youth Awards in Isfahanwas celebrated in the honor of this writer, producer and director of kids and teenagers’ cinema. She was awarded for years of efforts in this field.
In the history of cinema, movies such as Alice in Wonderland, E.T, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio and Harry Potter have been very successful and impressive. We should never forget that this genre of cinema is every kid’s right. And we should witness the same thing for the next generations especially since they have a very powerful communication with the world.
 
Feryal is the creator of Childhood fantasies for a generation of Iranian Children. In herfilms, there is knowledge of the world of children ( childhood).Sheunderstands children motherly. In the spring of 2019, after the floods and devastation in Shiraz, she and her husband released one of their own films, Vigan for the children there. The joy of children in those difficult conditions and in those days was an indescribable and lovely task. We can not separate her from the history of Iranian cinema, Iranian women and especially Iranian children and adolescents.
 
Ferial Behzad from the Perspective of Children's Cinema Experts

 Ali Reza Tabesh, The Director of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth - The Director of Iran’s Farabi Cinema Foundation:
“Lady filmmaker: Loyal to Children's Cinema".  New Iranian cinema, after the revolution, was an opportunity for the presence of "women filmmakers" Undoubtedly one of these women is "Feryal Behzad" who as a writer, producer and director of children's and adolescent cinema different works and it has created an appeal for the audience of children and teenagers. Before the revolution, children's cinema did not go beyond the films of Kanoon Parvaresh, which, of course, rarely had a female filmmaker among them, except in the field of animation, like Mahin Javaherian, who still creates influential works. Children and adolescent cinema in the first two decades after the revolution was such a growing and popular cinema that many filmmakers turned to it. Meanwhile, some female filmmakers, such as Ms. Ferial Behzad, remained loyal to children and adolescent cinema either as a director or Producer or writer, filmmaker as a mother, who was able to draw children and adolescents to the cinema with her works. Apart from reviewing the careers of female filmmakers in children's and adolescent cinema, in a general perspective, when we look at the work of female filmmakers, there is always a corner of a short but influential image of a child in their work, perhaps due to a motherly spirit that is caring for children. In September 2016, the 31st Isfahan International Film Festival for Children and Adolescents held a commemoration of "Ferial Behzad" with regard to this concern to tribute to the filmmaker who remained loyal to children and adolescent cinema.”

Azade Shakuri Rad, Writer and Animation Director, Member of CIFEJ:
“Feryal Behzad is an Iranian filmmaker who is active in children’s cinema. She has made some of our best memories due to her movies such as Kakoli and Valley of butterflies in an era when war was the first concern of the country. I take my hat off to her; she did a great job.”
 
Hania Asgari, Media Consuitant Researcher, Member of CIFEJ:
“When you watch Ferial’s movies, you get a unique sense of her style. Her movies are marked by specific indicators that bring you into her world. She is one of the most significant filmmakers in the history of Children’s Cinema in Iran. “
 
Elham Shirvani (Executive Director of CIFEJ)
“She is a filmmaker specializing in kids’ cinema, who has tried to look at children's issues through their eyes and to express children's issues by creating a fantasy context.She is very professional, calm, patient and kind, and maybe that is why she has been able to communicate with children through her films so well.”