My Stolen Planet

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.