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directed by Granaz Moussavi
Iran/Australia 2009
Marzieh (Marzieh Vafamehr,
BAREFOOT IN HEAVEN) is an actress living in Tehran and
experiencing difficulty expressing herself under Iran's
repressive regime. She meets Saman (Amir Chegini), an
Iranian raised in Australia, at an illegal rave that is soon
raided by the authorities. Marzieh and Saman are not rounded
up because they hid in the stables, but Marzieh's friend
Sadaf (Asha Mehrabi) is arrested. The couple fall in love,
and the possibility of emigrating to Australia offers a
freer existence; however, when she learns that she is HIV+,
the embassy refuses to issue her a visa and her relationship
with Saman falls apart. Due to the stigma of the disease in
the country (with some of the assumptions of how it is
contracted not so different from the still-lingering myths
in western countries) and the difficulty in obtaining
treatment (practitioners of AIDS-related care in Iran have
been imprisoned), Marzieh attempts to seek asylum in
Australia, attempting to use footage of the rave raid from
Sadaf's lost mobile phone to plead her case. The film is
told in flashback as Marzieh - in detention in Adelaide -
pleads her case (partially in English and partially through
an interpreter [Hadi Mansouri]) to an Australian bureaucrat
(Sandy Cameron). |
Poster
Theatrical Release: 28 February 2009 (Australia)
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
DVD Review: The Global Film Initiative (Global Lens Collection) - Region 0 - NTSC
Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!
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Distribution |
The Global Film Initiative Region 0 - NTSC |
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Runtime | 1:40:33 | |
Video |
1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio
16X9 enhanced |
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NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes. |
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Audio | Farsi and English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo | |
Subtitles | English (burnt-in) | |
Features |
Release Information: Studio: The Global Film Initiative Aspect Ratio:
Edition Details: Chapters 12 |
Comments |
The Global Film Initiative's disc features a single-layer, anamorphic, interlaced transfer (the Australian disc runs 96:44, so Global's disc is an interlaced encoding of the film at its 24fps framerate) with burnt-in English subtitles for the Persian dialogue. The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo audio is vibrant during the music passages, but otherwise restrained. While a PDF discussion guide is provided for the film, supplementary material about the film's covert production and the ensuing controversy would have been welcome (this is the film mentioned not so long ago in the media that resulted in the jailing of its star and a sentence of ninety lashes [eventually overturned]; the PDF guide makes only brief mention of this).
The R4 Australian disc reportedly features 5.1 and half-bitrate DTS mixes (whether the subtitles are optional is unconfirmed), as well as a theatrical trailer. |
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Distribution |
The Global Film Initiative Region 0 - NTSC |
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