Director’s Biography

I, Hossein Etemadfard, have lived with theater and writing critiques about it since I was eighteen. Theater was like an endless classroom for me—a place where I learned how to touch stories and see them from a different perspective. During those years, my storytelling experiences at the Golestan Province Youth Poetry and Story Association opened a new window to the world of narrative. My poems were selected several times in literary gatherings, an experience that gave me the courage to express my stories more boldly and deeply.

During my university years, I voluntarily collaborated with the Asadiyeh Golestan Art Collective and was actively involved as part of the writing team in student theater productions. All these steps later manifested themselves in my filmmaking journey.

At thirty-five, with a group of young and energetic individuals, we decided to explore the realm of visuals, and that’s how I entered the path of filmmaking. My first serious endeavor as a producer and investor was the short film Chekhov’s Gun. In 2024, this film was screened at the Tehran Short Film Festival, Tehran Fajr Film Festival, and Tehran Sports Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award. Later, it found its way to the Culture Foundation Festival in the United States, Amur Autumn in Russia, and the Milan International Sports Film Festival.

Following that, as a producer and researcher, I embarked on another project: the film Creation Version X, which is now at the beginning of its journey in international festivals.

However, my personal turning point is Green Screen—my first experience as a director, which I also produced. This film is more than just a project for me; it marks the beginning of a new and different path.

All these activities have taken shape under the banner of Rokh Film Company, where I remain actively involved, believing that new stories are on the way.

Director’s Statement

Where should truth be sought? In what the eye sees, or in what the media portrays?
The media, with its immense power, creates a new world—a world where representation can easily replace reality. This film is an attempt to pause at that fragile boundary, where the image is silent, yet the sound continues to scream.

The main character is never seen. Their gaze is our gaze—a gaze that, instead of witnessing destruction and explosions, confronts the absence of imagery. This absence raises a question: Is truth truly what the media narrates to us?

Visually, all traces of nature’s green have been stripped away, and the world is reduced to shades of gray. The only green that remains is the artificial green of the screen on which news is broadcast—a symbol of living nature being replaced by media representation and the shift in our perception of reality.

But the green screen offers a different perspective on the wars of the Middle East, where neither tanks nor falling bombs are seen. What collapses is not bullets, but a relentless rain of news—news that incessantly pours down on the psyche of citizens, turning collective peace into rubble. This war does not unfold on soil or borders but blazes in the minds and souls of people; a hidden war born from the region’s longstanding tensions, casting a heavy shadow over lives from Iran to its neighbors.

The green screen is an invitation to doubt, to pause before preconstructed narratives. This film poses a simple yet fundamental question: When the media defines the world for us, which image will we choose to believe?