Star-less

After about ten years as a still photographer in Iranian cinema, I turned my camera the other way, to document what the audience never sees: the moments behind the scenes. Star-less focuses on the extras, the actors and actresses in marginal roles, who live in a world of stars and look at dreams with hopeless eyes. Every day they move from one world, and one time, to another. They colour the stories but have no story of their own. They stand nowhere, at no time: no tomorrow to hope for, no yesterday to cling to.

What fascinates me is their enthusiasm: they wait for hours to appear for a few seconds in front of the camera, moments that may even be cut from the final film. These images are neither film stills nor staged photography: they are documentary. These nameless men and women wait in limbo between two worlds. The first is cinema, which leaves its mark on their costumes, masks and make-up. The second is the real world they come from, absent from these photographs.