How can you make a film about your own family (in times where the most intimate confessions are made on the mobile phone) without falling into the trap of presenting a series of trivial self-revelations? “Exile Family Movie” succeeds in doing so, because the family presented is not the sad odd lot of post-industrial kind, but a lively organism that suffers under given circumstances und defies them at the same time. The story is about a large Iranian family, dispersed all over the world by the Islamic revolution. Part of the family stayed in Iran, and the only way to see one another is to exchange video messages. Until a secretive encounter during a pilgrimage to Mekka is organised. In a hotel in Saudi Arabia, we witness the first encounter after more than 20 years. We don’t only observe how relatives – separated for a long time – embrace each other; but also how young meets old, and the Western world meets the Islamic world. The film is always moving and picks up on emotions repressed for a long time due to separation and exile. It includes innocently silly moments just like deep emotional encounters. This way, we get to know the family, and a part in us longs for this closeness hidden somewhere in our genetic memory – yet apparently lost forever. The West remains lonely.
(Catalogue DOK Leipzig)
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