VENICE WATCH: Iranian tales; vampire takes a break

VENICE, Italy (AP) — The Venice Film Festival is bringing 11 days of red carpet premieres, innovative movies and Hollywood glamour to the Italian city. Here’s what has been catching the eye of The Associated Press:

IRANIAN DIRECTOR SEEKS SANCTIONS END

Times are tough for the characters in “Tales,” a Venice Film Festival entry from Iranian director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad. Jobs are scarce, prices are high and drug addiction claims too many young people.

One of 20 films competing for the festival’s Golden Lion prize, “Tales” is a series of fictional vignettes set among struggling residents of Tehran — indebted cabbies, impoverished pensioners, unemployed factory workers.

The movie never makes the cause of their woes explicit, but the director says she wanted to show the harm that Western sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program were doing to ordinary people.

“The economic situation in Iran is critical, and this is due to the embargo, which actually penalized the people in the country,” Bani-Etemad said Thursday at a news conference for the film.

“Children who suffer from very severe diseases like cancer and multiple sclerosis are suffering from the consequences of the embargo. “I would really like to see these embargoes lifted. Someone has to give an answer to the Iranian people.”

Bani-Etemad is one of Iran’s leading female directors, and “Tales” has a strong focus on women, with characters — many reappearing from her earlier films — ranging from pensioners to prostitutes, doctors and staff at a women’s shelter.

Filmmakers in the Islamic Republic regularly face restrictions, and sometimes prison, and some have resorted to shooting films clandestinely.

“Tales” was shot quickly in the streets, homes and cars of Tehran, but the director said “that is not to say it was made underground. This is a film that experienced normal production difficulties.”

“But the joy of having made the film exceeds the difficulties,” she added.

And despite its warts-and-all view of social problems, it is due for release in Iran in the fall.

The director said that, as with all her movies, “if I am not sure my movie will be screened at home I will not have it screen in any festival.”

–By Jill Lawless, http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

PAUL WESLEY’S ‘VAMPIRE’ DEPARTURE

Paul Wesley is relieved to be swapping bloodlust for love.

The “Vampire Diaries” heartthrob plays a man in search of romance in “Before I Disappear,” screening at the Venice Film Festival. The 32-year-old actor took time out from shooting the series to play a supporting role alongside “Shameless” star Emmy Rossum in Shawn Christensen’s romantic movie.

Wesley said he could relate to his character, a “hopeless romantic” at sea in the world of drug-fueled New York clubs.

“I believe in love … for me it’s like the driving point of my life,” Wesley told the AP.

The character also appealed because “it was the complete opposite to the character I play on TV.”

And, Wesley admitted, it was a “welcome relief to not be doing something supernatural.”

–By Louise Dixon

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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