Selected by Shirin Neshat
Farzaneh Forouzesh, born in 1989, studied music at Tehran University of Arts, majoring in the Iranian instrument tar, but has ultimately turned to filmmaking while continuing her musical practice. In 2022 Farzaneh wrote, directed and produced her first work, And Her Sleeve Wet with Tears. This 20-minute film is a beautifully shot, exquisitely composed, layered and moving debut by a female artist who dares to approach the womanhood of her native country across generations, exploring the social constraints applied to women’s desires. While skilfully incorporating moments of social realism, Farzaneh seduces us with a highly stylised and surrealistic approach to the art of storytelling, borrowing from her culture’s rich poetic tradition, as well as international masters of filmmaking including Ingmar Bergman and Sergei Parajanov.
The film fits together, like a puzzle, private moments in various women’s lives: having makeup put on, grieving over the dead, communing in a bathhouse, cooking. In one scene, a mother and daughter sit watching Bergman’s Autumn Sonata (1978), capturing a striking moment in which the character Eva tells her mother: “The mother’s injuries are handed down to the daughter. The mother’s failures are paid for by the daughter.” Farzaneh points to the pressures on generations of Iranian women to catalyse change for the better, for their descendants.
Farzaneh’s unique artistic and cinematic approach is indicative of a new generation of Iranian women artists and filmmakers who, while fully engaged in exploring the plight of Iranian women struggling between traditional and religious suppressions, refuse to reiterate the stereotype about Iranian women as ‘victims’. Through thought-provoking narrative and use of symbolism, Farzaneh takes us deeper into witnessing moments of Iranian women’s states of joy, boredom, longing and sorrows. Navigating between timelessness and contemporary time, tradition and modernity, realism and surrealism, Farzaneh leans on the power of abstraction and enigma to build a narrative that while politically charged is also deeply poetic. Ultimately we are left with an impression that Iranian women’s oppression and suffering have led to the creation of an atmosphere that is indicative of an undeniable and unstoppable force towards autonomy and emancipation.
Farzaneh Forouzesh is an Iranian filmmaker, film critic, translator and musician. She obtained a music degree from Tehran University of Arts. In 2022 she debuted as writer, producer and director with the short film And her sleeve wet with tears.
Shirin Neshat is an artist working in film, video and photography. She lives in New York
