Movies from Iran competing in FrauenWelten festival

TEHRAN –(Iranart)-Iranian movies “Driving Lessons”, “Sunless Shadows” and “Women of the Sun: A Chronology of Seeing” are competing in the FrauenWelten Film Festival underway in the German city of Berlin.

The acclaimed short movie “Driving Lessons” by Marzieh Riahi tells the story of Bahareh, a young woman who, according to Iranian law, must have a man from among her relatives accompany her on driving lessons so she and her male instructor won’t be alone.

“Sunless Shadows” by Mehrdad Oskui is about a group of adolescent girls that serve their sentence for the grave crime of murdering their father, their husband or another male family member in an Iranian juvenile detention center.

“Women of the Sun: A Chronology Of Seeing” by Hamed Zolfaqari is a documentary about a group of women who come together in an old caravansary in the middle of Iran’s outback, and form a collective to sell and promote their homemade handicraft products. 

The women are accompanied by an enthusiastic director who equips the women with cameras so that they are able to film their own path to emancipation. In their community there initially is a great deal of suspicion towards the group of independent women armed with cameras. 

Many husbands refuse to allow their wives to participate. But the success of the collective exceeds their own expectations, and soon it is the women’s collective that can financially support their village, allowing it to survive.

The festival in its 20th edition encompasses 31 films from 30 different countries, with a focus on gender equality in the workplace.

The films show the range and the gravity of the worldwide obstacles to full realization of women’s rights. At the same time, they tell stories of courageous action and solidarity. 

The festival opened on October 28 and will come to an end today.

source: Tehran Times