After half a decade of research, shooting, and relentless editing, Mina Akbari’s Women of the Revolution is finally stepping out of Iran’s borders. The film will open at the Middle East Now Festival in Florence, Italy, before traveling to the São Paulo International film festival in Brazil. Akbari announced the milestones on Instagram, noting that financial strain, exhaustion and lingering doubt marked the journey, yet the project now “leaves home” for a broader audience.
Festival launches give the film a global platform
The dual premieres signal a rare moment for an Iranian documentary that tackles lived experiences of women during turbulent political shifts. Akbari expressed a wistful desire to have shown the work first to Iranian viewers, recalling the domestic reception of her earlier piece, Formerly Javanan Square. She thanked the production crew and the women who shared their stories, emphasizing that without their courage the film would not exist. Further insights about the five-year odyssey are promised in the coming days.
Archival works resurrect forgotten narratives
Two recent documentaries employ archival material to let historic voices converse with today’s headlines. Maiken Baird’s Edward Said: Between Worlds is built entirely from Said’s own interviews, lectures and broadcast footage, allowing the Palestinian scholar to narrate his own life—from a “country that doesn’t exist” to a celebrated New York professor. The film does not shy away from Said’s hardships, such as bullying at an elite boarding school and the personal loss of friends during Israeli raids, rendering a nuanced portrait that feels both intimate and political.
In a parallel effort, Pegah Ahangarani’s Rehearsals for a Revolution weaves five chapters around family members and close friends, each representing a distinct era of Iran’s post-1979 history. From her father’s idealistic support of the 1979 uprising to her uncle Rashid’s tragic fate after a torture-scarred protest, the film mixes scarce archival clips with Ahangarani’s own commentary. The final chapter turns to her daughter, questioning which version of the revolution she will inherit amid today’s crackdown on dissent.
Spanish audio documentary highlights Iranian women artists
Meanwhile, Radio Nacional de España’s audio feature Iran: women inside and outside the frame paints a broader cultural picture. It traces how poetry, once a covert outlet for love and spiritual yearning, has evolved into cinema, photography, music, comics and performance art—often spearheaded by women confronting the regime’s strictures. Figures such as Forough Farrokhzad, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and his daughters Samira and Hana, as well as contemporary visual artists like Shirin Neshat and Marjane Satrapi, illustrate the power of creative resistance.
The program, scripted by Lara López and directed by Samuel Alarcón, gathers voices from scholars and curators—including Gerardo Sánchez, Patricia Almarcégui, Farshad Zahedi and Shirin Salehi—to discuss how artistic expression has both mirrored and challenged Iran’s sociopolitical landscape. By broadcasting the stories of women who produce art inside a clerical state and those who work from exile, the documentary underscores a “new image” of public presence that counters the one-dimensional view often exported from abroad.
