The 26th Flying Broom International Women's Film Festival, between May 31-June 7 in Ankara, is set to present a special selection to draw attention to the impact of feminist resistance and solidarity with protests surrounding the 22-year-old woman – Mahsa Amini – who was detained by the "morality police" for not complying with headscarf rules and died while in police custody.
The section titled "Iranian Women Speak: History, Art, Resistance," comprises of experimental and documentary films made by women and non-binary filmmakers from 1979 to the present, offering an inside look at Iranian women's movement. The selection includes four feature-length documentaries and six short films.
Mania Akbari, an Iranian director, artist, writer, and actress, will be a guest of the festival for the screening of her 2022 film, "How Dare You Have Such a Useless Wish," in which she reveals the exploitation and objectification of women in Iranian cinema history through clips.
Maryam Tafakory's short film, "Iran Bag," will also be screened with Akbari's film. The documentary, which won many awards at international festivals, highlights how the bag became a cinematic motif that makes it possible to touch without touching, in post-revolutionary Iranian cinema where depiction of physical contact between women and men became prohibited.
Another film to be showcased in the section is "Radiograph of a Family," an autobiographical film by Iranian documentarian Firouzeh Khosrovani, which bagged awards at many festivals in 2020 and at the Amsterdam International Film Festival (IDFA). The film sheds light on the fundamental conflicts in modern Iranian history, from before the 1979 Islamic Revolution to the present day through family archive photos, videos, letters, notes and new footage representing different stages of the house where Khosrovani grew up.
Bani Khoshnoudi's "The Silent Majority Speaks" focuses on the protests that took place after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, which was marred by allegations of fraud.
This short film selection prepared by Daniella Shreir, the political activist, "Films for Iran, from Iran" brings together experimental and documentary films that explore intergenerational interactions.
