Iranian women directors at Sundance who can’t go home – ‘I think that’s the price for speaking the truth and speaking our truth’

This year Maryam Keshavarz, Noora Niasari and Sierra Urich have films at Sundance, two narrative feature films and one documentary, poignant and joyful family stories of the Iranian diaspora imbued with longing, regret and rebellion. Neither is about the ongoing civil unrest there, but it does color the filmmakers’ work and lives.

“The women-led revolution in Iran broke out while we were directing the film and that really pushed us to finish it. [It] gave us a unique energy to expand the stories of Iranian women,” said Niasari. your video Shayda follows an Iranian woman living in Australia who flees a house with her frightened six-year-old daughter to escape her husband Hossein, from whom she plans to divorce. Shayda (played by Zar Amir Ebrahimi, winner of Cannes 2022 for best actress Holy Spider) is Niasari’s mother. “My mother’s story, my story, is [like] Millions of our stories and I only hope that our films can be a drop in an ocean of change.”

The three were part of a panel moderated by Pat Mitchell for a Sundance Women’s Day celebration (the day before the national Women’s March, “Bigger Than Roe”). Sundance CEO Joana Vicente said this edition was a record for women, with 56% of films having at least one female director.

Keshavarz, here pop music filled family drama The Persian versionsaid she could not return to Iran since her first film, Fact, about two Iranian teenage girls who fall in love. It won the 2011 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award.

“I can’t go back. I can walk but I can’t walk. Hotel California. But I dream of going back. It was very difficult for me. My grandmother died recently and I couldn’t go back.”

Niasari said she was dealing with a similar situation. “But sometimes as artists we have to make these decisions. It’s a very difficult situation if you have family there. I think that is the price of telling the truth and telling our truth.

The new principal said she was beginning to struggle with risk just as much Shayda was about to be funded. “Can I go back to Iran? And my mother couldn’t go back either, and I asked her, “What should I do?” Because I put her in that position too. And she said, ‘I want you to do the film because I came to this country to give you freedom and I don’t want you to censor yourself as an artist.’

Ulrich, here with documentation JoonamShe grew up in rural Vermont, where her parents fled just before the Iranian Revolution. Her film turns to her mother and grandmother, Mitra and Behjat, to portray a portrait of three generations of women and their complex relationship with Iran.

Unlike Keshavarz and Niasari, she had never been to Iran, but longed to go there. “It’s a catch 22. The more you try to be connected, or you’re an artist and you talk, the more you end up in a situation where it’s not advisable to leave,” she said. “But what other choice do we have? It is our duty to speak freely about our experiences, even if it means cutting us off from a place we feel so connected to.”

In a high-profile case, Iran’s Supreme Court will soon rule on the release of imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Pahani (The Bears). He was arrested last July and is serving a six-year sentence he was convicted of in 2010 for “propaganda against the system”. In October, the court overturned the conviction and asked for a new trial.

Ulrich said the current protests and the subsequent crackdown with waves of detentions and executions by the regime have strengthened ties between Iranians around the world.

Civil unrest began in September in response to the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after she was arrested for wearing an inappropriate headdress.

“We see revolution as what we see on the street, but women have pushed the boundaries and put themselves at risk on every level,” said Keshavarz. “It’s been an ongoing battle for decades.”