The “Qashqai Female Voices” project, initiated and curated by ethnomusicologist Yalda Yazdani, takes a new look at the rich but marginalized culture of Qashqai women in southwest Iran in a series of events – so far at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum.
June, 6th to 9th 2024
Filmforum NRW/Museum Ludwig, Köln
In two editions in 2023, “Visions of Iran” reacted to the suppression of the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement – with numerous human rights violations and executions. In the current selection, the question arose: how would cinema, how would cultural workers survive these events? In fact, films have been made that have carried on the momentum of the protests, leaving censorship and prescribed gender roles behind. They won over audiences and critics at international festivals such as “Critical Zone” in Locarno and “The Sun will Rise” in Venice. At the Berlinale competition, “My Favourite Cake” touched on taboos such as love in old age or self-determined female sexuality, which are not only effective in Iran.
Even in difficult times, our festival remains committed to the civil society, diverse, minority perspectives of Iran. This concerns the country’s rich cultural past and present (“Journey to Yazdegerd Castle”, “An Owl, a Garden and the Writer”), the situation of Afghan immigrants (“Maydegol”) or the cinematic discovery “The Great Yawn of History”.
Another focus of this year’s festival is on the diaspora of several million Iranians. An early representative was Sohrab Shahid-Sales, who has enriched both Iranian and Iranian cinema (“Meteor”) and currently Faraz Fesharaki’s documentary “What did you dream yesterday, Paradjanov?” shows how connected Iranians are worldwide. So it goes on.
We look forward to seeing you! Your festival team
