Tag Archives: short films

Set in contemporary Iran, Facing Mirrors is a story of an unlikely and daring friendship that develops despite social norms and religious beliefs. Although Rana is a traditional wife and mother, she is forced to drive a cab to pay off the debt that keeps her husband in prison. By chance she picks up the wealthy and rebellious Edi, who is desperately awaiting a passport to leave the country. At first Rana attempts to help, but when she realizes that Edi is transgender, a dangerous series of conflicts arises. Directed by Negar Azarbayjani, Facing Mirrors is the first narrative film from Iran to feature a transgender main character.

Forty years ago, during the uprising to overthrow the Shah’s regime in Iran, protestors set fire to movie theatres as a way of showing opposition to Western culture. Many cinemas were burned down. In one tragic case, a theatre was set on fire with four hundred people inside, most of whom were burned alive.

Forty years have passed and, in contemporary Iran, four individuals also decide to burn a cinema down. Their intended target is a theatre showing a film about an unearthed, unexploded missile. Will past and present meet?

I am the product of Iran’s struggle between secularism and the Islamic ideology. My
parents’ love story takes us from the Shah era to the Islamic Revolution and the hardships during the Iran-Iraq War, up to the present day – all in our home in Tehran. In my childhood, I was constantly forced to choose between my parents; each day, I endured imposition from one side and acceptance from the other.
A love story, two different beliefs, a family in the turmoil of Iran’s modern history.