Analysis of the Combination of Creativity, Knowledge and Thought on the Silver Screen
Capabilities of Poulad Kimiai’s Art of Acting in Films Released over the Last Few Years
Poulad Kimiai has been one of the domestic and foreign film stars of Iranian cinema in the last two decades. So why do we say domestic and foreign? Because his works have always been successful at international film festivals and won the hearts of the audience. Now, you may ask one more question. If we believe he is one of the best film stars in Iran, he should have achieved what he deserved at least in terms of winning awards for best actor at famous international film festivals such as Cannes Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival but why hasn’t it happened?
Well, it’s a question we also want to answer and have mentioned in this article why Poulad Kimiai hasn’t drawn judges’ attention to himself despite his numerous and impressive appearances at famous international film festivals as befits his abilities.
By reviewing Poulad Kimiai’s career as an actor, we understand that he has taken two paths in the last fifteen years: Firstly, he appeared in comedy films such as Guidance Patrol trilogy (Gasht-e Ershad) and Selfie with Democracy. He’s been one of the highest grossing actors in the Cinema of Iran and Guidance Patrol 2 and 3 in which he’s played are among the eight best-selling films in the history of filmmaking in Iran. Secondly, he played serious roles and showed us that he has an outstanding ability. This category of his films started with The Trade in 1995 and has led to Killing a Traitor at the present time. However, it seems that Poulad has achieved what he expected from the Cinema of Iran and its audience in the first path, but even if he could attract the audience in a dramatic and miraculous way, he still hasn’t been able to fully convince judges of important international film festivals in spite of the fact that he is competent and still hasn’t won any awards in the second path. Therefore, will he continue these two paths regardless of such unkindness or he’ll follow a new path?
No one can speculate the answer. We can only admit that Poulad Kimiai is today one of the best Iranian actors whose presence in comedy films guarantees good sales and playing in serious films always brings him an interesting challenge. But he hasn’t only been active in the cinema. He has also shone out in TV series. While we know his acting career was generally in the art and industry of cinema and it all began from The Lead in 1988, but his acting patterns are fundamentally different in theater, cinema and television. Years after playing different roles in the cinema, he appeared in Blood Money series in 2007, and then in series such as The Gradual Death of a Dream, The Same Day and The Sixth Person. He displayed new capacities of his acting abilities in the aforementioned series.
Even from our farthest memory, we can surely remember the name and picture of Poulad Kimiai in his first crime TV series. Matador directed by Farhad Najafi cannot easily be forgotten, let alone Kimiai’s exemplary role as a police officer and a security inspector. Let’s remember his first films in the early 1990s. How many people could predict that the actor who played small parts in films such as The Trade, Sultan and Cry would become a film star in the Cinema of Iran one decade later; an actor who has a great influence on ticket sales and brings the general and target audience to the theaters?
Three decades of acting may be enough to reach the position Poulad Kimiai has in Iranian cinema right now, but it has undoubtedly been a difficult process for him. He hasn’t become a superstar overnight. This success is the result of perseverance, hard work and smart choices.
He has played in about 25 films from the beginning of the 1990s and gradually played the main roles. From small parts in The Lead and Protest directed by his father, Masoud Kimiai, he could reach main and memorable roles in films such as A Candle in the Wind and Friday’s Soldiers. Then he played an important role in The Command, which was a different film at that time. In this film, Kimiai appeared as a criminal who was tired of the rules in the world of crime and organized crime and put away his noble considerations and compassion for the best result.
When Poulad Kimiai became famous, he just played main roles in the early 2000s and appeared in films such as Living with Eyes Closed and Trial on the Street. He sometimes demonstrated himself as a subtle and compassionate actor and sometimes as an irritable one and succeeded in receiving many awards for his roles in the above-mentioned films.
In conclusion, Poulad Kimiai who had walk-on parts in the early 1990s took big steps in the early 2000s and influenced on ticket sales by relying on his unrivaled abilities and potentials and he could go beyond those small and unimportant roles with great effort and hard work and was nominated at famous film festivals. Whether he plays a comedy or serious role, people adore him and as we said at the beginning of this article, he’s an actor who is sometimes as sweet as honey and sometimes as bitter as poison.
Source: Jam-e Jam Newspaper – Issue 6578
