When songwriter, director,
actor and overall artist Ali Hatef
wrote a song, he never imagined
the recording would take on a life
of its own.
Today Hatef’s film “The Traveler”
starring Marjan Vayghan is
set to premiere at the Portobello
Film Festival in London on Sept.
11 and is far away from where he
intended to be with his original
project.
“It (the story) just kept growing
and as Marjan joined the project,
it just took off from there,”
Hatef said. “Marjan was maybe
the twentieth person who read for
that part. It’s the story of Maryam
and honestly it was very hard to
find someone with the ability to
portray the character the way she
does. When we asked if she (Marjan)
would do it after she read a
few lines, it happened.”
The story focuses around
Maryam who lands at LAX in
search of her husband Amir,
whom she met during his last visit
to Iran after he lived in the United
States for year. Concerned about
her family’s reputation Maryam
goes to Los Angeles where she
meets Ali, a part-time cab driver
and painter who ends up helping
in her quest.
“It was a story I had heard
time and time again growing up in
Iran where you have people living
here traveling to Iran to visit their
family and the family tells them
to meet someone, so they have
a party and they meet someone,
and get married in that closed
system,” Vayghan said. “These
people come back and they never
hear from each other again. The
person that existed in a closed
system all of a sudden had their
system get instantly smaller and
their reputation which is everything
in Iran is in a state of limbo.”
Through Our Building
Bridges Rooftop Vayghan has
been actively involved in bringing
American and Iranian artists
together to share in the creative
process as one. Through her
back and forth with OBBR, she
has met several artists who can’t
get their voices heard or obtain a
chance to exhibit their work.
“I believe a lot of women fin
strength and empowerment in a
closed system and a lot of strong
women come from that system,”
Vayghan said. “Which is why I
knew I couldn’t do Maryam: I
knew a lot of Maryams and I knew
I could not pretend to be them.”
Yet, Hatef saw something in
the ability of the young actress
that convinced him she was perfect
for the role.
“After I saw her name on
the post card I looked up her
work and was amazed that she
is involved with this project Our
Building Bridges Rooftop with
the artist in Iraq,” Hatef said. “I
thought she could be the perfect
person for this role. When I met
her she was so down to earth and
all of us sitting at the table looked
at each other and said ‘that is her.’
We were hoping she would say
yes and she did.”
Unfortunately not Hatef or
Vayghan will be able to attend
the Portobello Film Festival in
London; however, plans to screen
the film around Los Angeles and
overseas will take place after the
screening.
“Every one or two weeks I
would get an email saying it was
nice of me to send the film but
that they could not take it but
that I should keep making films,”
Hatef said. “When I got the message
from the festival in London I
thought it was a regret letter.”
For more information on the
film persons interested can visit:
http://www.thetraveler-movie.
com/synopsis