Along with the oppressed filmmakers, Singh constantly meets women who are suppressed in various ways—they must wear the chador or hijab, they cannot sing solo in public (that’s why they keep asking Singh to sing Farsi songs), and worse. Her interviewees include human rights activist Nasrin Sotoudeh, who has also been sentenced to 38 years in prison for defending women opposing compulsory veiling laws; Jinous Nazokkar, author and academic, and actor Farhad Kheradmand. She also meets Aida Mohammadkhani and Mina Mohammadkhani, who had acted in Panahi’s films The White Balloon and The Mirror respectively, as child actors. Aida, who had wept in The White Balloon as a child actor, is now challenged to do the same on cue as an adult. Singh is filming the scene from a discreet distance, but Panahi takes her camera and does a close-up of the actress’ tears: it’s that kind of informal filmmaking that also acquires an urgency. In a delightful sequence, Singh sings a Farsi love song in a school room full of girl students: the students have been forbidden to sing, but they join her in song, in a spontaneous show of delight and defiance. 

The director’s approach is one of openness, personal enquiry and empathy; as an Indian woman with a shared history and culture, and especially one who speaks Farsi, she speaks of having an ‘Eastern gaze;’ she has an informed outsider position but many more doors open to her because of this. The film meanders in some places—the editing is by Joydip Das, Jabeen Merchant and Pradyatan Bera—and you wish it was more up to date on the current Iranian revolution for human rights, but rather than a classical documentary, the film chooses the conspiratorial, first-person tone of a friend and confidant, and appeals because of this. Singh is herself in the film—beautiful, sensuous, empathetic, open to engagement, and she even shares with us a poem inspired by a photograph she took of a Iranian woman in a chador by a river bridge. Singh is the director, screenwriter, cinematographer, sound recordist and producer. Majdy’s music and Anirban Borthakur’s sound design enhance the film. The Executive Producers include Noopur Sinha, Hussain Currimbhoy and Orly Ravid. The women crew include Singh as the director, screenwriter, cinematographer, sound recordist and producer and executive producer Noopur Sinha. Sinha says she “never felt far away” in Iran because of the socio-political situation and patriarchy in India as well. It gives you an idea how Indian cinema changes for the better when you give a woman a voice in film.

Poll

Who will win the Punjab Elections?

BJP 32.76%

AAP 43.10%

INC 24.14%

Submit

View All In Poll

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist. 
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com