Shahid

Iranian director Narges Kalhor (In the Name of Scheherazade…, VdR 2019, and Sensitive Content, VdR 2023) wants to remove “Shahid” from her family name - a legacy inherited from a great-grandparent, meaning “martyr”. Intent on thumbing her nose at a past that belongs to both a patriarchal and bygone era, she hires Baharak - an Iranian actress who, like her, sought refuge in Germany - to play the role of Narges Shahid Kalhor as she goes through the process of changing her name. However, this venture involves overcoming a number of obstacles. Her great-grandfather and his cohort of devout dancers follow her closely everywhere she goes, the administration is a Kafkaesque nightmare, Baharak and Narges no longer have the same conception of the film, and her therapist – in spite of being named Ribbentrop – struggles to understand why she wishes to change her name. Constantly oscillating between documentary and fiction, borrowing from the codes of performance, musical comedy and thrillers, this film is a delightful satire on the need to resist ideologies and confront what has been inherited from the past in order to form one’s own identity. Shahid is an explosion of formal freedoms, and Narges Kalhor is undoubtedly one of the most individual and exciting voices working in German cinema today.

Aurélien Marsais

Shahid, 2024
Sensitive Content, 2023
SuperEnki from Osterwald, 2021
In the Name of Scheherazade or the First Beergarden in Teheran, 2019
Neda, 2017
Gis, 2016
Lavashak, 2015
Kafan, 2014
Shoot Me!, 2013