THE CRITICAL ROOM: WHAT IS HAPPENING IN IRAN?
When 22 year old Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the moral police in Iran on SEPT 13th this year, countrywide demonstrations broke out with the demands for regime change. We focus on Iran at this year’s festival and invite to a screening of NO BEARS, made by this year’s Honorary Award recipient – imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
Based on the situation that is now unfolding in Iran, actor Nasrin Khusrawi, Iranian filmmaker Sina Ataeian Dena and filmmaker Kaveh Tehrani are taking part in a conversation moderated by Aida Khorami. What does the future look like for the country's population, and how threatened is freedom of expression and art under Ebrahim Raisi's rule?
Follow the Facebook event here.
Panelists
- Moderator – Aida Khorami is a Norwegian journalist and actor. She works as a journalist in NRK, culture and entertainment. In 2020 she acted in the TV series Norsk-ishis
- Nasrin Khusrawi is educated at Oslo National Academy of Arts, The Academy of Theatre and works in Theatre, Film and TV. Recently she has been in the TV series Norsk-ish, Rådebank and Tre nøtter til Askepott. She has recently played Nora in A Doll's House at Kilden Theatre.
- Sina Ataeian Dena is a director, screenwriter and producer from Ahvaz in southern Iraq. He originally studied physics but dropped out and eventually started studying film. He has already put behind him a versatile career as a filmmaker, and has, among other things, made video art, short films, and animated films. Paradise (2015) was his first feature film.
- Kaveh Tehrani is a director and actor based in Oslo. He has won several awards at the Amandas, Krakow Film Festival and Aspen Shortfest for his short films. At the moment he is working on his first feature film, based on Gulraiz Sharif’s novel, Hør her’a.
About the Film
We're in a small Iranian village on the border of Turkey, where the director is supervising the shooting of a new film. The location is a half hour drive across the border and tells the story of an unlucky couple trying to escape to Europe. At the same time the director gets in trouble in the village as he might have taken a picture of an «illegal» young couple, as the woman is promised to someone else. Fear and superstition explode, and being a director becomes very difficult. As in real life.
Practical information
- The conversation will begin at 18.30, ahead of the screening of NO BEARS and will be in English.
The Critical Room
The Critical Room (TCR) is our forum for debate and conversation. We invite exciting guests from both Norway and abroad to discuss topics that are highlighted in both documentaries and fiction films. This year we are showing five films in the TCR section, each of which in its own way addresses current social issues and problems related to countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.