Firouzeh Khosrovani Norwegia, Iran, Switzerland / 2020 / 82’ / Persian, French | Italian and English Subtitles

BEST FEATURE FILM AWARD WINNER ASSIGNED BY STUDENT JURY

My mother married my father ́s photograph in Tehran, while he was studying radiology in Switzerland, because for mother to move to Switzerland they had to be married. For my mother, with her religious background, living in Europe was a challenge Sin was everywhere. My father instead came from a liberal and secular family, he was a lover of culture, fine arts, classical music. After I was born, we moved back to Tehran and, shortly after, the Revolution happened and changed everything. My mother found new reason and new identity, an important space for herself: She became a religious activist, school principal and did military training. My father sat quietly in his favorite chair at home and listened to Bach. In our house, there was no more card playing, nor red wine. Photographs of women without hijab were ripped apart. I was torn between my two parents. For a little girl, it was difficult and painful. As my identity developed, I carried both of them inside me and I still do. I am the result of Iran ́s struggle between tradition and modernization. My story is told through photographs, archive footage, letters and voices. Our home in Tehran becomes a metaphor of the shifts in our family, hence in modern Iranian society.

ScreenplayFirouzeh Khosrovani
EditingFarahnaz Sharifi, Rainer Maria Trinkler, Jila Apachi
Music Peyman Yazdanian
Sound design and mix Ensieh Maleki
Production Antipode Film AS
ProducerFabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning
Executive producer Arild Karlsen
Coproduction DV Films, Rainy Pictures
Coproducer Majid Barzegar, Firouzeh Khosrovani

Firouzeh Khosrovani

Born in Tehran, Firouzeh Khosrovani settled in Italy to pursue her artistic studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, then returned to Iran and acquired her MA in Journalism. She made her debut as a filmmaker in 2004 with Life Train, Life Train a documentary on the ‘play’ therapy provided for the traumatized children of Bam in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. In 2007, she directed Rough Cut, which won thirteen international documentary film festival awards, followed in 2008 by Cutting Off, Cutting Off, an installation and video art piece for the Triennale di Milano, and by 1001 Irans (2010). In 2011, she collaborated on a Spanish production about the concept of beauty, Espelho Meu, which won the Best National Documentary award in Documenta Madrid, and in 2012 she directed Iran, Unveiled and Veiled Again, produced by Istituto Luce, Cinecittà. n 2014, she participated in a collective project, Profession: Documentarist, with six other Iranian women directors, and directed Fest of Duty,on the religious ceremony girls go through in Iran at the age of nine.