Aban

Under constant pressure from her ex-husband, Nazanin should turn their child – Aban, nine years old – away from a very driven feminine taste. One day, Aban goes to the hospital thinking of undergoing life-changing surgery.

Directed by Abbas Taheri and Mahdieh Toosi
Produced by Pouria Mousavi, Frédéric Dubreuil, Jessica Cressy

Directors’ Bios: Abbas Taheri started his profession in his first year of studying cinema at Tehran University of Art by making short films, which has continued since then. He has made five fiction short films and six documentary short films, some of which have been screened and received awards in Iranian and international festivals. The obvious point in his works is an artistic effort to find his style of telling local but global stories, expressing his ideas about life, existence, and death.

Mahdieh Toosi was born in 1982 in Iran. She graduated from the Sooreh University of Art in Film Directing. She attended the Masterclass of Filmmaking under the supervision of Abbas Kiarostami at the Karnameh Institute. She is now teaching screenwriting at the Sooreh University of Art and participated as the scriptwriter and script consultant in short film projects.

Plays in

Revisiting Landscapes: Children’s Perspectives

Children observe and listen to those around them. But their understanding of a situation doesn’t always align with that of adults. In these shorts, filmmakers tap into the unique emotional and psychological perspectives of young people to tell their stories. What does it feel like to be bullied by your classmates? to struggle against the forces of unforgiving climates? How can a person hold onto a sense of self against the pressures of culture and tradition? Glimpse the world anew through this shorts program!