Perspectives on Iran
Complimenting the retrospective of our Guest of Honour Rakhshan Banietemad, Sheffield DocFest has curated a selection of new and vital documentaries showing different perspectives on Iran. Ranging from female filmmakers surveying the limitations placed on their lives and work, a reassessment of the male gaze in cinema and an account of the insidiousness of censorship to a dark portrait of political interrogation and a celebration of friendship across two continents. Together, they explore the challenges of everyday life in Iran, but also hope for change and a brighter future.
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And, Towards Happy Alleys
Indian filmmaker Sreemoyee Singh’s journey to Iran interweaves the censorship imposed upon filmmakers with the restrictions women face in their daily lives.
  • Sreemoyee Singh
  • 2023
  • Film Programme
Film
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Between Revolutions
Letters between two former medical students contextualise the revolutions that transformed their respective homelands in Iran and Romania.
  • Vlad Petri
  • 2023
  • Film Programme
Film
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How Dare You Have Such a Rubbish Wish
Employing a wealth of vintage film footage, Mania Akbari highlights the role of the male gaze in Iranian cinema and in doing so reclaims the female body from it. 
  • Mania Akbari
  • 2022
  • Film Programme
Film
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My Worst Enemy
Mehran Tamadon explores what it was like being interrogated by the Iranian regime by asking prisoners to reconstruct their experiences. 
  • Mehran Tamadon
  • 2023
  • Film Programme
Film
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Profession: Documentarist
Seven independent female filmmakers voice their concerns about their political, creative and personal lives in the context of the society they live in. 
  • Shirin Barghnavard, Firouzeh Khosrovani, Farahnaz Sharifi, Mina Keshavarz, Sepideh Abtahi, Sahar Salahshoor, Nahid Rezaei
  • 2014
  • Film Programme
Film
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Shorts: Iran - A Sense of Place
In this special programme we will present four of the Iran - Sense of Place films, followed by a discussion with the filmmakers and project curator Afsun Moshiry.
  • Film Programme
Shorts programme
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Where God Is Not
Three former political prisoners of the Iranian regime re-enact their experiences of interrogation, torture and isolation in Mehran Tamadon’s visceral and confrontational film.
  • Mehran Tamadon
  • 2023
  • Film Programme
Film

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