Synopsis

Visual artist Maryam Taghavi, born in Tehran and based in Chicago, prepares for her first solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art. This observational film provides an intimate inside look into Taghavi’s approach to her work, which beautifully uses Persian letters and calligraphy to explore geographic distance and transcend language barriers.

This film screens as part of the Documentary Shorts: Near and Far program.

Synopsis

In this surreal vision of the not-too-distant-future, the official language of Canada is now Farsi. Against this oddball background, three slice-of-life stories emerge: Two young friends venture to retrieve money found frozen in a block of winter ice. A man quits his painfully bureaucratic government job and returns home. And a peculiar tour guide shows off some of Winnipeg’s dullest attractions to a group of discombobulated tourists. Taken together, these deadpan stories create a picture of life in the “heart of Canada” that’s both hilarious and heartwarming. Featuring masterful production design with an eye toward the absurd, director Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) describes his second feature as “a love letter to Iranian cinema,” combining the soulfulness of Abbas Kiarostami with the visual whimsy of Wes Anderson to create an appealingly unusual odyssey.

Synopsis

Iman, an ambitious family man, receives an appointment to become an investigating judge in Iran’s Revolutionary Court. Such a professional step means major advancement for him, his wife, and his two independently minded teenage daughters. His rise is complicated, though, when nationwide student-fueled protests against the government cause violent unrest in the streets, forcing Iman to work overtime. When his handgun mysteriously goes missing, his nerves are strained to the breaking point.

Equal parts tension-fueled domestic drama and paranoid political thriller, the film offers an excoriating examination of an oppressive, patriarchal society about to reach a tipping point. Currently living in exile to avoid an eight-year prison sentence for his films’ criticism of Iran’s hardline conservative government, veteran auteur Mohammad Rasoulof (There Is No Evil, 2020) returns to the Festival with this exhilarating, timely work that rises to the urgency of the moment.

Synopsis

Anchored by a pair of winning lead performances, this unexpected romance tenderly examines human connection. Mahin, 70, lives alone in Tehran after her husband dies and her daughter moves to Europe. She spends her days in solitary routine, cooking and tending to her backyard garden. Out to tea one afternoon, she catches the eye of an eligible senior bachelor. Inspired to break from her everyday drudgery, she seizes the opportunity to revitalize her love life. What follows is an unpredictable, eventful chronicle of a single unforgettable evening. Bursting with life, this unconventional, at times surreal delight weaves together social critique and light comedy as it reflects on what it means to live as a woman under restrictive social and political circumstances.

Synopsis

Born weeks after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, filmmaker Farahnaz Sharifi soon realized she was living on two different planets: the public one which was constrained by political and religious strictures, and the private one where she could fully be herself.

Discovering the power of images at an early age when she bought her first camera, Sharifi began recording her family life while also obsessively collecting decaying Super 8 reels left behind by anonymous people. In contrasting these two worlds — scenes of violent repression on the streets versus home movies showing moments of joy, dancing, and domestic freedom — Sharifi offers an intimate and timely reflection on how recorded images can be a powerful corrective to the erasure of histories and female identity. Winner of top prizes at nearly a dozen international film festivals, My Stolen Planet allows Sharifi’s own story, along with images of voiceless women from the past and present, to form a vivid and collective act of resistance.