Why did Monica Bellucci learn Farsi for Rhino season? (videos)

Sept 16, 2012

Bellucci (left) with Ghobadi at Press Conference TIFF 2012

The London Free Press: For her role in Rhino Season, Bellucci learned to speak Farsi and meticulously researched Iranian culture and history. "I do my work as an actress because, through my work, I get a chance to get in touch with more cultures that are so different from mine," Bellucci said in a press conference for the film "Rhino Season" during the Toronto International Film Festival on Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012. Also attending the conference were Turkish actress Belcim Bilgin, director Bahman Ghobadi, actor Behrouz Vossoughi, and pop singer Arash Labaf.

(From Left) Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Bahman Ghobadi, Belcim Bilgin, and Arash Labaf

"That's why my choice, from the beginning of my career, was to work with Italian directors, French directors, American directors. But I never thought that one day I would work with an Iranian director and speak Farsi in a movie." Bellucci was eager to be in Toronto for Wednesday's world premiere of Rhino Season. It gave her the opportunity to support exiled Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi and an Iranian acting legend, Behrouz Vossoughi, who fled Iran for America after the Iranian Revolution.

Vosoughi (front) and Bellucci in Rhino Season

A haunting love story that spans three decades, Rhino Season is based on the tragic story of a Kurdish poet and family friend of Ghobadi’s who was unjustly incarcerated during Iran’s Islamic Revolution. The victim of a personal vendetta, Sahel (Behrouz Vossoughi) is thrown into prison along with his devoted wife Mina (Monica Bellucci). Inexplicably released after serving a ten-year sentence, Mina is informed by the authorities that Sahel is dead. Heartbroken, she and her two children leave Iran for Istanbul — unknowingly leaving behind her very-much-alive husband, who is forced to stay in prison for another twenty years. Finally released, Sahel sets out to find his wife, the memory of whom was the only thing that had sustained him throughout his agonizing ordeal.

Rhino Season is a metaphor for Vossoughi's life and what he lost, Bellucci said.

As for Ghobadi, "he gave me the chance to play Mina, this woman who lost everything, this woman who was happy, who had love, freedom, a normal life, and she lost everything (after the Revolution).

"People can ask: 'How is it possible for a European woman who has freedom, who can go anywhere she wants to go, to play a woman like that?' But I have to say that I can understand her, even though she is so far away from what I know. Because I come from a country -- Italy -- where just 60 years ago a woman could have been killed by her husband and he wouldn't go to prison because it would be described as 'a crime of passion'. I come from a country -- Italy -- where, until a few years ago, virginity was still an essential thing for marriage.

"So I come from a macho culture and woman in my country had to fight for their rights, and still they do. So maybe that's why I could understand Mira. And the language? Now I speak Italian, French, English and Farsi!"

Monica Bellucci

The director, Ghobadi, obviously admires Bellucci. "Number one," he said through an interpreter, "she is a good human being. Number two, she is a good human being. And number three, she is a very good actress."

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