Mother-Son Encounters

Vaghty bache bache bood / When the Kid was a Kid
Anahita Ghazvinizadeh, Iran 2011, 17 Min. Farsi with English subtitles, digital file

Banoo Ordibehest / The May Lady
Rakhsan Banietemad, Iran 1998, 88 Min. Farsi with English subtitles, DCP

Prerecorded Introduction by Rakhsan Banietemad (online)
Followed by a talk with Anahita Gazvinzadeh

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh offers a brilliant debut with the short film Vaghty bache bache bood, playfully and imaginatively touching on a seldom addressed topic in Iranian Cinema: Gender roles and their representation. Taha, a ten-year-old, is involved in a play in which children imitate their parents’ roles. Living with his divorced mother, Taha understands new things about his mom by playing her role.

Banoo Ordibehest focuses on the life of a divorced mother of a troubled teenage son who is devoted to her work as a documentarist. Her role as a mother forces her to abandon her own needs. Cleverly intertwining documentary and fiction, the film gives deep insights into post-war Iran and the harsh realities of its economy. Rakhsan Banietemad presents the dialog of the generation, a cultural conflict that is still ongoing today. 

Anahita Ghazvinizadeh (b1989, Tehran, Iran) got her BFA in cinema from Tehran University of Art and her MFA in studio arts from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Anahita has studied with Abbas Kiarostami and is influenced by his cinematic style. Since 2011 she started to work on a trilogy of short films with children as main characters. When the Kid was a Kid (2011, Iran) and Needle (2013, US) are the first two finished pieces. Needle was premiered in Cannes Film Festival, Cinefondation selection and won the Premier Prix. Anahita was selected as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Cinema in 2013 by the Filmmaker Magazine. She is also the co-writer of the acclaimed feature film, Mourning (2011).

Rakhshan Banietemad, born in 1954, Tehran, began to make documentaries for the Iranian National Television in 1979, right after graduating from the University of Dramatic Arts. From 1979 to 1987, she focused on making documentaries. In 1987, she directed her first feature film Off the Limits. In 1995, she won the Bronze Leopard for The Blue Veiled at the Locarno Film Festival. This film, along with Gilaneh (2005) and Mainline (2006), garnered major awards in more than 50 film festivals. While Banietemad’s feature films have been acclaimed and honored worldwide, her documentaries have also been successful and are popular internationally.