In the Name of Scheherazade oder der erste Biergarten in Teheran

With a video message from Narges Kalhor

“Just let him know you have a new idea, something about your homeland, something political,” is the advice offered by a friend to filmmaker Narges Kalhor, who is trying to complete her graduation film. Her despair about the project is due to the input of the white male commissioning editor whose comments in voiceover keep interrupting the film. As he puts it, he would like the film to be closer to the audience’s usual “viewing habits”, demanding that “stories from the homeland” be included here and there, as well as images of refugees or “something not so complicated”. The resulting film is many films in one, with the viewers becoming witnesses to the editorial process along the way. With a joyful sense of anarchy and plenty of humour, Kalhor combines a range of different stories to create a mockumentary, which doesn’t ultimately take the editor’s comments so seriously after all.

Narges Kalhor, born in 1984 in Tehran, Iran. She studied directing and visual communication. In 2009, she applied for political asylum in Germany while in the country for a festival. Her graduation film In the Name of Scheherazade premiered at the Visions du Réel festival in Nyon and was awarded the Goethe Institut’s prize for best documentary film at DOK Leipzig.