Fifi Howls from Happiness

What is the sound of death? It is said that the last time Bahman Mohassess was in his home in Teheran, he burnt all his works and disappeared. More than three decades later, a camera films the wall in his hotel room. The shadows have eyes, and the death of the artist fills our ears. After the Iranian revolution in 1979, not a trace of the paintings or sculptures of Mohasses were seen again. When director Mitra Farahani introduces us to him, it is as one of the most important, but also most repressed, names in Iranian art. The man we meet has no inhibitions. He has clear opinions and dictates how details of the film about him should be. baa

Director Mitra Farahani is an Iranian painter herself, and has made several films that have made the Iranian government irate. When she arrived in Tehran in 2009, she was immediately arrested and imprisoned for three days. Farahani has previously made two films, one of which won a Teddy Award at the Berlinale in 2002.