Între revoluții

It is the 1970s and Iranian student Zahra meets fellow student Maria at university in Bucharest. Both pursuing a degree in medicine, they develop a deep friendship and admiration for each other. When the revolution against the Shah breaks out in 1979, Zahra, moved by the hope of political transformation, goes back to Iran but disappointment quickly follows. Zahra never ends up returning to Romania. Over the next decades, Zahra and Maria exchange letters about protests, the general upheaval in both countries, the oppression of women and how it affects them; Romania does not remain untouched by revolution either. Separated by revolutions, their correspondence depicts two women struggling to conform to societal stereotypes and grappling with their profound feelings for each other, which seem to stretch beyond simple friendship. In his film, Vlad Petri draws entirely on incredible, evocatively edited archival footage from Iran and Romania to tell the story of two women in such a way that the lines between documentary and fiction blur. In such testing times, doesn’t such a bond almost seem too good to be true? (Jacqueline Nsiah)

Funded by Hauptstadtkulturfonds