Joghd, Bagh Va Marde Nevisandeh
Sara Dolatabadi
Iran, France, Switzerland | 2023 | 83 min
World premiere
Language : Persian
Subtitles : English, French
Mahmoud Dowlatabadi is one of the most prolific Iranian novelists. In this beautiful, poetic portrait, gracefully crafted by his filmmaker daughter Sara Dolatabadi, he reflects on his life throughout the turbulent 20th century. Meanwhile, his daughter manages to create her own images of a father who is full of luminous ideas, yet also somewhat peculiar and lonely.
Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, one of the most prolific and incisive Iranian writers of the 20th century, is walking with his young granddaughter in the garden of his house. His filmmaker daughter Sara Dolatabadi delicately records the strange and profound relationship between these two loved ones who come from different generations, one reaching the end of his life cycle and the other at its very beginning. There is a kind of learning that is exchanged between the two, a connection in the way they look at the world around them. Throughout the film, the great writer serenely and harmoniously reflects on a life dedicated entirely to literature, in a country that over the course of the 20th century chose to ban his books and even imprison him. While most Iranian intellectuals fled the despotic regime, Dowlatabadi made the decision to remain, clinging to the exercise of writing as a survival strategy. Grandfather, daughter and granddaughter here compose a deep and lucid look at the turbulent experience that was the 20th century in Iran, with literature as their solace.
Violeta Bava