Working with the Cinemobile on a Film Production in Iran in 1975

In the 70s, I had been working in London for a film equipment rental company called Lee Electric and was in-between jobs when a friend of mine phoned me with a job offer. He worked for an American film equipment rental company called Cinemobile, which was based in Pinewood Film Studios on the outskirts of London. Cinemobile had several purpose-built vehicles. One of these was built around a German Neoplan coach chassis, and inside it was a generator and several compartments to house cameras, sound and lighting equipment.

Cinemobile had been hired by an Iranian/American co-production to supply the equipment to make a film in Iran. This friend asked me to join him on this job. I accepted, and shortly after, we flew out to Tehran to meet the co-production team and to organize a film crew of electricians to make this film. The vehicle was put onto a low-loader and then driven overland to Tehran by a specialized company.

We met with the production company in Tehran and discussed our tasks in the film production. We were responsible for the Cinemobile, and that all its equipment was functioning and ready at the film locations.

Map of Iran

The majority of the film locations would be in the desert down in the southeast corner of Iran. Bam is in Kerman Province, situated in the southeast of Iran, and is the last town of any size before the Pakistan border town of Zahedan. The distance by road from Bam to our diverse film locations was just around 500 miles/800 km and could take many hours. The film unit itself decided on Bam as a base since there were shops and other facilities. It also gave the film crew a break from the harsh reality of the isolated desert locations we would be working in, which were a few hours’ drive along the road towards Zahedan.

We also needed an interpreter because the local electrical technicians who worked for the Tehran film production company and many of the students from the local university who assisted us with general tasks could not speak English.

In Iran, in the mid-70s, nothing was possible without the authorisation of the Iranian Secret Service, known as the SAVAK. This includes the secret police, domestic security and the intelligence services. Therefore, as part of the co-production deal, we had to have a member of the Savak on the payroll to keep an eye on us. He was pleasant enough, even though he was a member of the secret police. Yes, everyone was careful of what they said when he was nearby. He was useful, too, as he became the go-between between the American camera crew and sound people and the local drug dealers. The drug policy in Iran during that time was complicated. On the one hand, the strict drug laws were not able to curb the widespread traditional use of opium by the population. On the other hand, the Iranian state also wanted to profit from the monopoly of opium cultivation.

The transport of the equipment from Tehran to Bam and to the various film locations in the desert and back was important for the success of the film production. My friend and I shared the driving of the Cinemobile when we set off from Tehran towards Bam. We were followed by the film crew technicians, together with our interpreter and the secret policeman in their cars. We were on the road for several days, stopping overnight at various roadside hotels/guesthouses because the distance between Tehran and Bam was around 750 miles/1200 km.

The road conditions took a lot of getting used to, and driving was sometimes challenging. You have to drive the roads to get a true perspective as to why it takes so long to drive south, toward the Pakistan border, in Iran. Detours have to be made at regular intervals to overcome the rough desert terrain. Convoys of international trucks constantly making their way to and from Pakistan have worn the dusty desert road surface into tracks that, in turn, have been pounded into deep ruts during the rains. After the rains, these ruts are baked into the consistency of concrete by the sun and summer heat.

There were other hazards too. Localized flash flooding can wash away the roads. During these times, the convoys of trucks would pummel the road until it turned to gravel. I passed one particular spot several times whilst driving from Bam to our desert location and watched a small rut in the road grow over time into a crater ten meters wide and over a meter deep. It was fascinating to watch these international trucks slow to a crawl before dipping and swaying, like some huge prehistoric monster, down into these craters and then slowly edging their way back up onto the road on the other side. Sometimes the road was so bad the trucks had to find a way through the desert sand beside the road for quite a distance to regain the road.

Driving the Cinemobile through the Iranian desert in 1975

This German Neoplan coach chassis of our Cinemobile was heavy and had air suspension and low ground clearance. We had to drive with great care from Tehran to our desert location and take time-consuming detours around these washed-out stretches of road. Only once were we caught out, and that was during our first drive from Tehran down to Bam. A door of the Cinemobile burst open, and several pieces of expensive camera gear fell out because we couldn’t stop in time and drove into one of these craters, and it took hours of digging to get the Cinemobile out again. After this experience, we roped the doors closed as an extra precaution and paid extra attention to the road ahead, especially during the middle of the day when the summer heat made you drowsy.

We travelled this road between Tehran and Bam frequently because the American side of the co-production sometimes had a cashflow problem, sometimes for weeks at a time. Under these circumstances, it was cheaper for the production company to have us drive back to Tehran, stand the local crew down and put the rest of us in a local hotel until more money arrived. Then we returned to Bam again.

I remember very well one particular drive down from Tehran to Bam when winter was gradually turning into spring. We got totally stuck in the desert sand, manoeuvring around an area where the flash floods had washed away the road. We got out of the vehicle, lay down on our bellies and started to scrape away the sand from the wheels with our bare hands. The Iranian electricians were following us in their cars, and we gesticulated to them to come and help us. They just stood there, jumping frantically up and down and wouldn’t come to help. We were shouting and cursing them, and they, in turn, were shouting back at us. So we continued scraping the sand away on our bellies until we could continue our drive. We were very angry.

The interpreter had already gone ahead to our next hotel/guesthouse stop for the night, and we’d decided to have a group meeting with the electricians to tell them we all worked as a team, and that included digging out the Cinemobile when it got bogged down in the sand. The meeting started off frostily, and we told them, through the interpreter, what we expected of them, and they, in turn, explained why they didn’t come to help.

The reason why they were frantically jumping up and down, and shouting was to stop us digging. The Iranians wanted to warn us. Why? Because the place we’d got stuck was known as an area where the snakes burrowed into the desert sand to hibernate during the winter months.

The beer was on us that night!

(DL)