A woman, wearing a nightgown and her hair discovered, is next to her husband in bed. An older man and woman, drunk on red wine, wildly dance and discuss the complexities of sex and nudity at their age. A young woman in distress sails in the sexual advances of a male employer in a job interview.
These scenes may seem to be ordinary life extracts on the big screen. But their existence – in three Iranian films released in recent years – is simply extraordinary, representing a new era of cinema in Iran cinema.
These films and the trend they represent have acquired recognition and distinctions internationally. One of them, “The Seed of the Sacred Fig”, written and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, will compete on Sunday for the best international feature film at the Academy Awards.
Mr. Rasoulof, 52, is part of a number of eminent Iranian directors and artists who have flouted the rules of government censorship applied for almost five decades since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. These rules prohibit representations of women without hijab, alcohol consumption and men and women touching and dancing; They also prevent films from tackling the subjects taboo as sex.
In a collective act of civil disobedience and inspired by the 2022 uprising led by women in Iran And the continuous challenge of many women of restrictive social laws, Iranian filmmakers say they have decided to finally make art that imitates real life in their country.
“The Women-Vie Movement was a pivotal point in Iranian cinema,” said Rasoulof, referring to the demonstrations that swept the country in 2022 after the death of a young woman in police custody when she was detained for breaking the compulsory rules of the hijab.
“Many people, including filmmakers and artists from the film industry, wanted to break the chains of censorship and practice artistic freedom,” said Rasoulof in a telephone interview in Berlin, where he now lives in exile.
Mr. RASOULOF Thriller’s drama follows a fictitious judge for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Court Facing the rebellion of his teenage daughters who turn against him while these demonstrations burst.
The judge’s family drama serves as a metaphor for the wider struggle which continues in Iran, years after the government brutally canceled the demonstrations. Many women still challenge the hijab rule, appearing in public without covering their hair and bodies, and young people clearly show it – Dancing in public spaces, or through their choice of music and clothes – that their lifestyles differ very those of their religiously conservative leaders.
Mr. Rasoulof made the film without the approval and granting of government licenses required, and filmed it in secret. Like all daring Iranian films made underground in recent years, “the seed of sacred fig” could not be released in Iran and was rather distributed internationally. He competes in the Oscars as a candidate of Germany, who co -produced him.
Mr. Rasoulof fled Iran in May, just a few days before the Prime Minister of the Film at the Cannes Film Festival, and after being sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging the accusations linked to his political activism and his art. He was already imprisoned for eight months in 2022.
The Iran revolutionary court has opened a new criminal case against Mr. Rasoulof, its actors and certain members of his crew, accusing that the film threatens the national security of Iran and spreads indecency. But he said that everyone involved agreed that the risk was worth it.
Most of the main members of the film distribution have now left Iran, with the exception of the main actress, Soheila Golstani, who is still the only one in the country in person in person.
“For me, it was more than acting in a film,” said Ms. Golstani, 44, in an interview with Tehran. “Something as a social responsibility. And of course, presenting a real image of the character of a woman who has never had the opportunity to appear on the screen. »»
For actresses, the risks are amplified. The simple fact of letting their hair show up in public or in front of the camera is equivalent to breaking the law. But a number of famous actresses have announced that they would no longer wear hijabs in films, a stand that may limit their casting options and shake the government’s anger. He forced a little exile.
Vishka Asayesh, a 52-year-old beloved film star, left Iran in the summer of 2023 after meeting with intelligence agents on his support for demonstrations.
“Enough, it was enough, respecting the rules looked like a betrayal of my fans and all the young protests courageously,” said Ms. Asayesh, who now lives in New York. “It was my way of participating in the movement of change.”
The struggle between artistic expression and government control continues. A new successful Iranian television series, “Tasian”, taking place in the early 1970s during the shah reignwas suddenly canceled last week and prohibited from streaming platforms because his female characters showed their hair (the actresses wore wigs) and dancing and drunk in the nightclubs. The director of the show, Tina Pakravan, challenged the authorities by returning the whole series available on YouTube for free on Friday. She lives in Iran.
“Why an artist who should be a mirror of his society should be forced to emigrate only because he reflects the desired images of his people?” Pakravan said in a Tehran telephone interview.
The international coalition for risk filmmakers, which defends artistic freedom and security, Organized a petition recently signed by more than 100 eminent personalities from the world cinema industry for two Iranian filmmakers, a married couple, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, Who are faced with proceedings related to their film acclaimed by criticism, “my favorite cake”.
“My favorite cake” Explore a theme in a daring way not seen in Iranian cinema since the Revolution. A man and a woman, in the 1970s and overwhelmed with loneliness, spend an impromptu romantic night together. They drink wine, dance and discuss sex and their insecurity on naked stripping. In a scene, the main actress, Lili Farhadpour, spray the perfume under her skirt, anticipating sexual intimacy.
“It was time to show the real life of a large part of Iranian society – the way they go to their days, they love and act,” said Moghadam, 52, in a Tehran telephone interview.
She and her husband wrote the script two years before the demonstrations led by women who have catalyzed so many other directors. Their film has since been screened in Le Monde and won 17 international prizes, including the Jury Prize at Berlin International Film Festival and the new directors at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Like Mr. Rasoulof, they also face charges related to national security and the spread of indecency before the revolutionary court which could result from years in prison and were prohibited from leaving the country, working or teaching, they said. Their first trial date is on Saturday.
Mr. Sanaeeha said he hoped that attention to the Oscars on Mr. Rasoulof’s film would lead to more support for independent Iranian filmmakers and that the Academy would change its rules which require international films to be nominated by the government of the country in which they were produced. The rule, he said, actually closes the new wave of revolutionary Iranian films.
“Each filmmaker dreams of making films in his own country,” said Sanaeeha. “We have never seen our film on the big screen in the theater or with an audience.”
Leily Nikounazar Contributed reports.
