This programme brings together Iranian works that explore the tenacious quest for freedom between waiting and action, persistence and subversion. With documentary urgency and artistic experimentation, the films tell stories of people who resist political violence, state control, and silence. The works show resistance as a lived practice – both on the streets and in private – and leave the door open for a future that is not accepted as already decided.

Subtotals
Mohammadreza Farzad / Poland/Germany/Iran 2022 / 15'3" / DCP / colour / Farsi / Doc
Have you kept a record of your gray hair? The number of houses you have owned or rented? The number of kisses you have exchanged? The number of times you've flown in your dreams? You may not have. It makes no real difference in a life lived beyond numbers.

And Me, I'm Dancing Too
Mohammad Valizadegan / Iran/Czech Republic/Germany 2023 / 20'33" / DCP / colour / Farsi / Fic/Doc
With rhythmic fluidity, Saba's body moves to the music. Dancing is what she lives for, how she expresses herself – yet she is not free to do so in her own country. In a film dancing the line between documentary and fiction, a moving portrait emerges of a generation of young Iranians hemmed in by the Islamic republic's rigid rules.

Nazarbazi
Maryam Tafakory / United Kingdom/Iran 2022 / 19'11" / DCP / colour / Farsi/English / Exp
«Nazarbazi» («The Play of Glances») is a film about love and desire in Iranian cinema where depictions of intimacy and touch between women and men are prohibited. The film focuses primarily on images of women whose bodies have been erased and victimized in post-revolution cinema.

And How Miserable Is the Home of Evil
Saleh Kashefi / Switzerland/Iran 2023 / 7'8" / colour / Farsi / Doc/Exp
The website of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is crammed with filmed sermons and speeches. Appropriating these official archives, Saleh Kashefi – exiled in Switzerland – has created a political fiction that is both hard-hitting and ambiguous. We bear direct witness to the dictator’s last moments before his downfall, as whispers fill the streets.

Memories of a Window
Mehraneh Salimian/Amin Pakparvar / Iran/Germany/USA 2026 / 19' / colour/black & white / Persian / Doc
Following crackdowns on protests in Iran, civilians begin documenting the unrest from behind windows. When a woman is shot while recording, a film student writes her a letter raising the question: Can revolution emerge from behind windows?