In times when geopolitical narratives flatten a country into headlines, this program turns to cinema to restore complexity, as well as the individual voices of Iranians. Rather than offering a single image of Iran, the program unfolds a mosaic of lived experiences shaped by history and rupture.
Bringing together works by filmmakers inside and outside Iran, including internationally acclaimed artists such as Farahnaz Sharifi (Missing, Revolutionary Memories of Bahman who loved Leila) or Mania Akbari (A Moon for My Father), these films trace personal and collective histories of revolution, exile, and personal memory.
From diaristic gestures to essayistic reflections, from archival excavations to hybrid forms, the films challenge imposed silences and reveal what persists beneath them. In Bassidji, Where God Is Not and My Worst Enemy, Mehran Tamadon stages direct encounters with power, belief, and coercion, exposing the fragile mechanics of ideology. Films like Irani Bag and One Image, Two Acts turn to gesture, image, and performance to articulate what cannot be spoken directly, while The 17s captures fleeting acts of youth and defiance within tightly controlled spaces.
Together, they map Iranian inner landscapes where personal vision resists fixed narratives, in solidarity with those fighting for freedom and against the pressures—internal and external—that seek to silence them.
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