Yazd, biggest living museum
open to making another film abroad if the story calls for it, he said, he will mostly make movies in Iran.)
As he immersed himself in Spain, Farhadi realized he had to make changes to his story. Iranian culture is more mysterious and secretive about past indiscretions, and he came to know Spanish culture as more straightforward. The Spanish are more comfortable discussing such secrets, he said.
The film opens with church bells; the religious themes became more prominent as his familiarity with Catholic culture grew. “Much of the film is a story about two people colliding: He believes in God and the other doesn’t believe, so it’s a challenge between these two,” Farhadi said in a mix of Persian and English. On its surface, ‘Everybody Knows’ is a police procedural (minus the presence of the official police). But Farhadi said his aim was exploring how time affects us and our relationships with others.
“If we’ve done something 16 years ago, that responsibility still remains with us. It doesn’t leave us,” he said. “The past always comes back to haunt us.”
He wrote ‘Everybody Knows’ with Cruz and Bardem in mind. The latter plays Paco, Laura’s childhood friend who owns a vineyard and becomes an integral part of the tale. Filming was particularly intense for Cruz, who called the role the most challenging of her career; she spends most of the film navigating various states of desperation and anguish, and during the last month of shooting, she had a fever almost nightly.
“The doctors could not find anything wrong with me,” she said.
“Of course, it’s fiction, but there is a part of you, I think, there is a part of yourself that doesn’t distinguish, and maybe it’s that two percent that is going to affect you.”
Cruz called Farhadi a tough but kind and honest director, one who would ask a lot of questions — which can be a rarity among directors — and inspire the actors by sharing a poem or dream he had the night before.
“It’s a different language he uses,” she said. “It’s not a fake thing. It’s not like a character that he plays.”
He is also quite humble, Cruz said, which came through when a reporter asked whether his experience of being Iranian and making such a thoroughly Spanish film provided a lesson for the rest of us. He’s not one to offer counsel to others, he said. “But one thing I experienced myself, and with each film I experience more, and I believe more, is if one makes a film with their heart, truthfully, the film will be better for it.”
* Elahe Izadi is a pop culture writer for The Washington Post. Prior to joining The Post in 2014 as a general assignment reporter, she covered Congress, race and class issues and local news.
The historical Iranian city of Yazd is considered as the biggest living museum in the world, said the deputy head of Yazd Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Department. Yazd has a lot of sites which have been registered both nationally and internationally as well as invaluable monuments which show the long history of the city, Homa Khorshidi told Iran Daily.
“This is not just a claim and you must walk around the city through its ancient areas, adobe structures, traditional bazaars, mosques and historical monuments to confirm it,” she said.
The historical texture of the city, spanning an area of over 700 hectares, is one of the most beautiful and vibrant in the world.
What is surprising is that the people in this city continue their lifestyle according to the historical style of ancient times. Iran submitted a profile of the historic city of Yazd to UNESCO in 2016 and finally part of the city, around 110 square hectares from the Ilkhanate era, were registered by the organization.
Historians argue that the history of Yazd dates back to pre-islamic Era. Others believe that the historic city of Yazd must have been sought somewhere away from its current location. In fact, most of the discovered historical sites go back to the fifth Hegira century.
At the same time, there are some monuments belonging to the second and third Hegira century which increases the estimates about the history of the city.
In this city, buildings in general and architectures in particular belong to different eras such as Atabegs, Mongols, Ilkhanate, Al-e Mozaffar, Timurid, Safavid, Zand and Qajar.
“Yazd enjoys abundant tourism potentials in terms of history and culture and is highly attractive for foreigners who flood the city to see its magnificent Iranian-islamic architecture,” she said. The city is also interesting for tourists due to its health tourism and ecotourism sites. Tourists visiting this city usually ask for ecotourism parks, zoos, desert-like and vocational camps and centers. A large number of tourists also come to the city for medical services such as cardiovascular and infertility services, she said.
Some countries like India and Italy are making great efforts to promote their tourism industry by creating tourism golden triangle which has become common in Iran in the last two or three years with the three cities of Yazd, Isfahan and Fars.
Tourist attractions in these three cities in terms of cultural and historical tourism drew many tourists to Iran, she said, adding that Yazd registered on UNESCO World Heritage List expedited the process.
Over 125,000 foreign tourists and 275,000 Iranian tourists visited Iran in the year to March 21, 2018, but the figure for the nine months from March 21-December 21, 2018 was 86,000 and hopefully this will reach last year’s figure (275,000) by March 20.
However, the number of domestic tourists visiting the city since March 2018 witnessed a rise due to the city’s favorable weather conditions in the fall and winter.
One of the reasons for such increase in domestic tourists is the various festivals and touristic events held to introduce less known regions particularly rural areas.
In the year to March 20, 2018, most tourists came from Poland, Germany, Russia and France, but since then Chinese tourists have outnumbered them.
She said that prerequisites have been met for the city to host tourists during the Norouz (Iranian New Year) holidays. The historic city of Yazd will welcome guests with diverse interests in either traditional or modern residential lodgings, she said.
Tourism and travel agencies will also hold sightseeing tours of the city and are also planning excursions for foreigners in the near future.
Tour guides were also trained to speak several languages to help tourists get the best of the city during their trip.