TEHRAN – Ida Panahandeh, director of the acclaimed Iranian drama “Nahid”, will be holding a master class at the 8th edition of the Iranian Film Festival Zurich currently underway in Switzerland.

She will discuss the role of women in Iranian cinema during a master class, which will be held on June 1, the organizers have announced.

Creating a character, paying for it and representing it in Iranian cinema are associated with limitations that prevent the diverse, deep and influential reflection of female characters in films produced in Iranian cinema.

This issue can be considered in three stages: screenwriting, film production and release.

Panahandeh, 43, obtained a degree in film photography in 2002 and a master’s in film direction in 2005, both from the Arts University of Tehran, where she began her film career with several short films. 

Having as a central theme a woman’s place in modern society, she has, throughout her work, focused on women’s rights. 

Her debut feature, “Nahid”, won her worldwide acclaim. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, which praised the film with Prix de l’Avenir.

Panahandeh’s latest drama “Titi” is also competing in the official competition of the festival. It won the audience award of the Nouvelles Images Persanes Festival in Vitré, France in November 2021.

The Iranian Film Festival Zurich opened last Thursday by screening the 1969 drama “The Cow” by Dariush Mehrjui, a pioneer of Iran’s New Wave cinema.

The film follows Masht Hassan, who owns the only cow in a remote and desolate village. While he is away, his cow, whom he treats as his own child, dies. Knowing the relationship between Masht Hassan and his cow, the villagers hastily dispose of the corpse, and when Masht Hassan returns, they tell him that his cow ran away. Devastated by the news, Masht Hassan starts to spend all his time in the barn eating hay and slowly begins to believe that he has become the cow.

Thirteen feature films, including “The Sun of That Moon” by Setareh Eskandari, “The Milky Day” by Mahmud Nuri, “World, Northern Hemisphere” by Hossein Tehrani, “At the End of Evin” by Mehdi Torabbeigi, “The Rain Falls where it Will” by Majid Barzegar, “The Majority” by Mohsen Qarai, “Bone Marrow” by Hamidreza Qorbani and “District Terminal” by Bardia Yadegari have been chosen to be screened in the official competition.

Photo: Iranian director Ida Panahandeh in an undated photo.

MMS/YAW