IndieWomen Film Festival

Best of the 2020 BendFilm Festival Women's Shorts

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This program is sponsored by Groove Yoga.






This program represents some of the best 2020 BendFilm Festival Shorts that were also all women-directed.

A WOMAN (Winner - Best Narrative Short)


A young, modern mother struggles to find her place in Baku, Azerbaijan, a culture simultaneously Muslim and secular, progressive as it is traditional, and like her at a crossroads of seeming contradictions. Navigating the trappings of both conventional and modern female roles, she straddles the space between choice and responsibility where in the course of one day she can be a mother, a daughter, a wife, and still be herself.


Director's Bio:

Tahmina Rafaella is an Azerbaijani filmmaker and actor based in Los Angeles. In 2015, the Ministry of Culture & Tourism of Azerbaijan funded her first feature film, INNER CITY, which she wrote and starred in. The film screened and competed in multiple film festivals around the world. Her directorial debut, A WOMAN, which she also wrote, produced and acted in premiered at Palm Springs ShortFest. She is an alumni of Talents Sarajevo.

  • Runtime
    13 minutes
  • Language
    Russian, Azerbaijani
  • Country
    Azerbaijan
  • Director
    Tahmina Rafaella
  • Screenwriter
    Tahmina Rafaella
  • Producer
    Tahmina Rafaella
  • Executive Producer
    Conor May, Natalé Olsen, Kimi Howl Lee
  • Cast
    Tahmina Rafaella, Zaur Shafiyev, Saeed Mammadov, Vidadi Aliyev
  • Cinematographer
    Daniel Guliyev
  • Editor
    Evita Yuepu Zhou