TEHRAN – “Dream’s Gate”, “Subtotals” and “A Family Sentenced” by Iranian filmmakers will compete in ZagrebDox, an international documentary film festival taking place in the Croatian capital of Zagreb from March 26 to April 2.

“Dream’s Gate” by Negin Ahmadi and “Subtotals” by Mohammadreza Farzad will be screened in the official competition and “A Family Sentenced” by Saeid Keshavarz has been selected for the State of Affairs category.

In “Dream’s Gate” co-produced by Iran, France and Norway, Ahmadi starts a personal journey into the combat zone of North Syria to question what it means to be a woman. 

Alone with her camera, she decides to look for an answer to her questions by encountering the women who embody the strongest contemporary myth of female strength and freedom: Kurdish female fighters. The personal search and internal struggles turn into an intimate women’s diary written in the first person. Following, sharing and witnessing the life of these and other Kurdish women put into question the image that the director has of herself and of the cost of equality and freedom in this difficult region.

“Subtotals”, an experimental documentary co-produced by Iran, Poland and Germany, is a poetic essay meticulously constructed from clips of Iranian 8mm home videos from bygone days. 

As we watch birthdays and wedding parties, people dancing, laughing, swimming or just relaxing, a narrator, in a contemplative, sometimes heavy voice, enumerates series of dry facts.

“A Family Sentenced” follows Reza, who is jailed on drug charges under mysterious circumstances and his wife is forced to uproot the lives of their four children. Under Iran’s strict drug laws, Reza faces execution if convicted—a harsh sentence made harsher still by the overwhelming economic and emotional toll it takes on his family. With the future uncertain and nowhere to go, Reza’s family members find themselves at the mercy of actions taken far out of their control.

The audience will have an opportunity to see as many as 116 documentaries in 12 program sections of ZagrebDox.

Twenty films are competing for the official festival award The Big Stamp in the international documentary film category, and the same number of titles are running in the regional competition.

Photo: A scene from “Dream’s Gate” by Iranian director Nazanin Ahmadi.

MMS/YAW