Filmmakers Explore Relationships in ‘Echo’
“The Echo of the Leopard,” which has been selected for the 22nd Hong Kong — Asia Film Financing Forum, marks a confluence of the talents of Hanna Jalali and Moeinoddin Jalali, who are based in both Ukraine and Iran.
The filmmakers are graduates of the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-kary Theatre, Cinema and Television University. They have previously collaborated on several acclaimed shorts including “After” (2016), “Interview” (2020) and “Freaking Awesome Life” (2022).
In the Iran-set film, a series of mysterious disappearances of female hikers occur in the mountains. The police search for a serial murderer, while locals harbor suspicions that a mythical, leopard-like creature is responsible for the disappearances. Bahman, a forest ranger whose father grapples with memory disorders, actively prevents the locals from hunting the leopards. Years pass and new case evidence emerges pointing to Bahman’s father, who made some remarks to a nurse about the potential burial site of the victims. A journalist theorizes that the father inadvertently revealed crucial information and his article linking him to the case thrusts Bahman’s life into disarray.
“Animals frequently fall victim to human superstitions, misguided beliefs or greed, particularly in less- educated, small communities. This inspired us to create a film highlighting the ignorance behind such mistreatment of animals, within the context of an engaging criminal drama. To enhance the story’s atmosphere, we decided to incorporate mystical elements, as wild animals — particularly the leopards in our story — have always held a mystical significance for humans,” the Jalalis told Variety.
“It revolves around the lack of mutual understanding among individuals, their tendency to assign blame to someone solely based on their relation to the true culprit. In certain situations, such as in our story, this can ostracize an individual from their own community, ultimately leading to the destruction of their life,” the Jalalis added.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine will form a potent backdrop to the events in the film. “Initially, we planned to set the movie timeline during the early 2000s. However, we recently decided to shift it to 1994, as it marks the year when Ukraine renounced its nuclear weapons and received security guarantees in return. This decision allows us to incorporate news updates from TV and radio about this significant event, thereby unveiling to the audience a significant aspect of the background behind the current war in Ukraine,” the Jalalis said.
The budget of the film is $529,000, of which $77,000 has been raised. The Jalalis aim to attract co-producers, sales agents and financiers in Hong Kong.