I comme Iran (Sanaz Azari, 2014)
I for Iran
,
I comme Iran (Sanaz Azari, 2014)
Language
Taal
Langue
Persian
Subtitles
Ondertitels
Sous-titres
English, French
Available
Beschikbaar
Disponible
Worldwide
Duration
Duur
Durée
50'
Aspect Ratio
Beeldverhouding
Format d'image
1.78

Within the confines of a classroom in Brussels, filmmaker Sanaz Azari learns to read and write in her native tongue, Persian, using a textbook dating back to the Islamic Revolution. Guided by a teacher, she acquires the language basics, which is also a gateway to Iran's history and culture. Throughout the film, the didactic language lessons give way to a poetic, visual collage that questions the concept of freedom and the meaning of revolution.

“There are the lessons which follow from a seamless morphology. An image of bread suggests its lack, a lack of work, humiliation; an image of a tree suggests hanging, execution. Images become words, words become script, script becomes historiography. But Azari's linguistic naïveté, her beginning again from scratch, holds other possibilities, too. Words shift and signify in different directions, themselves inscribed with new meanings, echoes, futures.”

The Brooklyn Rail, Leo Goldsmith

“When I started making the film, I posed lots of questions about Iran’s future, and the closer I got to my subject the fewer answers I found. Just like the image of the frame, where the closer we get to it, the more blurred, the more ill-defined the pattern becomes. And so we enter into a sort of abstract shape, a new space where each of us, I hope can construct our own image.

Sanaz Azari

I for Iran is a film whose radicalism lies above all in its delicacy, the delicacy of the sounds of the Persian language, the delicacy of the outdated illustrations, the delicacy of the poetry of Hafez or Forough, the delicacy of the hand of the young woman and her softly hoarse voice, the delicacy of the gaps that Sanaz Azari introduces between the words, the sounds, the images and the spaces. It is a film about the delicacy resisting all tyrannies […].

Laurent de Sutter

Language
Taal
Langue
Persian
Subtitles
Ondertitels
Sous-titres
English, French
Available
Beschikbaar
Disponible
Worldwide
Duration
Duur
Durée
50'
Aspect Ratio
Beeldverhouding
Format d'image
1.78
A Film by
Een film van
Un film de
With
Met
Avec
Behrouz Majidi
Script
Scenario
Scénario
Sanaz Azari
Image
Beeld
Image
Vincent Pinckaers
Sound
Geluid
Son
Frédéric Meert, Matthieu Roche
Producer
Producent
Producteur
Cyril Bibas
Line Producer
Uitvoerend Producent
Producteur Exécutif
Maud Girault, Olivier Burlet
Editing
Montage
Montage
Effi Weiss
Sound Editing
Klankmontage
Montage Son
Maxime Coton
Sound Mix
Klankmix
Mixage son
Laurent Martin
Colour Correction
Kleurcorrectie
Etalonnage
Miléna Trivier
Production
Productie
Production
Centre Vidéo de Bruxelles
Co-production
Coproductie
Coproduction
CBA, RTBF
With the Support of
Met de steun van
Avec le soutien de
Beursschouwburg Brussels