New Jersey Film Festival Spring 2023

Shorts Program #1 – Online for 24 Hours and In-Person at 5PM!

Expired January 29, 2023 4:59 AM
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Fereshteh – Elika Rezaee (Redondo Beach, California)

Fereshteh distills the daily reality facing many modern Iranian women, as they enter old age. Alternating between naturalistic observation and imaginative flourishes, this narrative/experimental short film tells a simple story of how an older woman experiences her everyday routine. Since the Islamic Revolution, women in Iran have been required to wear veils in public, but in films, they are required to wear them in indoor settings, as well. This film breaks that taboo of Iranian cinema and shows a woman’s body and bodily functions in a private space. This is womanhood as Iranians experience it, not the idealization of the cleric or bureaucrat. Dialogue is kept to a minimum, the form of the film echoing her solitude. Actions that seem unremarkable from the outside are infused with a search for purpose amid all the mundane challenges, absurdities, introspection, and loneliness that structure her existence. It is, to me, a way of living both poetic and awe-inspiring, indeed the life of a Fereshteh - an angel. In Persian, subtitled. 2022; 15 min.

  • Year
    2022
  • Runtime
    15 minutes
  • Language
    Persian
  • Country
    Iran, Islamic Republic of
  • Director
    Elika Rezaee
  • Screenwriter
    Elika Rezaee
  • Producer
    Nader Rezaee, Heliya Rezaee
  • Filmmaker
    Elika Rezaee
  • Cast
    Fereshteh Tehrani