One of the most touching films of this year’s Berlinale screened in the Generation K+ Section was the Chinese film Zhi Wu Xue Jia – The Botanist by Jing Yi. A film that takes us to a small village at the Chinese border close to Kasachstan. For its touching portrayal of the region, its enrichment to the discourse on the human-nature relation and its stunning pictures The Botanist receives this year’s Grad Prix for Best Feature Film in the Generation K+ section. I was deeply touched by this film and especially by the wonderful music, that transported the beauty and melancholy of the pictures. Therefore I asked composer Peyman Yazdanian for an interview. Peyman is an Iranian pianist and music composer. He is internationally known for his compositions for both national and foreign feature films. Although he is very busy already working on the music for the next film screened at Cannes, he writes back to me and agrees to answer my questions.
Dear Peyman, thank you for this wonderful score of The Botanist. To beginn with I’m interested to hear, how your collaboration with director Jing Yi came to be. You are a composer from Iran. Jing Yi was born in northeastern China. What united you to come together for this work, and what interested you in this project?
I’ve worked on numerous films with Chinese directors since 2004, so I’m very familiar with the Chinese film industry. When Zoulong, the producer of the film, approached me for this collaboration, he sent me the story, which I really liked. I was particularly curious about the visuals. To me, The Botanist had an Iranian-style feel, and I felt a deep connection to it. That’s why I didn’t hesitate to get involved, and I’m really glad I did.
I heard several instruments, which I couldn’t identify. Could you tell which instruments you used for this beautiful score?
It’s indeed a combination of old folk instruments like, Rubab (from Afghanistan), Kamancheh (from Iran), Duduk (from Armenia), Hang drum which can be considered as modern instrumented and of course Cello.
Maybe you could give an insight into the process of composing for film. Do you get some visual material to compose to, or do you have material prepared in advance? What was especially challenging or interesting in the composing process of The Botanist?
For me the images and the way of story telling are the most important keys to work for a film. After watching the film several times, it came to my mind that I want to use Iranian musical colors as a touch of east. The way that I’ve done few times for the films from Northeast China. Indeed a lot of similarities could be found between this region and Northwest Iran. I am so glad that Jing Yi accepted the idea.
What fascinated me about the soundtrack you created was that I felt it gave voice to nature that is so beautifully captured in the film. It somehow managed to transport both the loss and the love for nature at the same time. Could you put into words the influence the topic had on the music? Did you think of specific musical means to transfer this feeling, or did you work more intuitively?
To be honest, I have done it more intuitively, but as my music should always follow the film, it is the film that transports beautifully the loss and the love for the nature.
The soundscape of the film is so carefully woven. The sound of a river starts a movement that flows over into the music. Were you working together with the sound designer during the project, or was that mostly due to well-done postproduction and editing work?
I always strive to be very meticulous about the sound and dialogues, but achieving the right result also requires excellent sound mixing and close collaboration with the production team. I had the opportunity to engage in a back-and-forth with the production, which allowed me to receive the work-in-progress sound during the music production. This collaborative process helped create a result that we can truly call a great score.
