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"OUR TIMES"
(Ruzegar-e Ma)
 

Director: Rakhshan Bani-Etemad
Co-directors: Mohsen Abdolvahab, Mona Zandi
Director of Photography: Soheil Noruzi
Editors: Piruz Kalantari, Mohsen Abdolvahab, Nava Rohani
Sound & Mix: Mohammad-Reza Delpak, Hossein Mahdavi
Producers: Jahangir Kosari, R. Bani-Etemad
Production: 79 Cinema Organization
35mm, 2002, 2 versions (65min in Betacam – 75 in Betacam and 35mm – 35min in Betacam)

   
SYNOPSIS:

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad decides to capture images of people involved in the presidential elections of 2001 in Iran. She follows some young cinema actors and artists, including her young daughter, who with lots of hopes and desires for future have started a campaign for Khatami. Meeting some of 48 female presidency nominees whose candidacies have been refused by the government, director is deeply attracted by the character of a 25-year-old widow named Arezoo Bayat, who, despite carrying the heavy burden on her shoulders, wishes to fight not only for a better life for herself, her 9-year-old daughter and blind mother but also for all of Iranian. Afterwards, Rakhshan forgets the main atmosphere of that time and joins Arezoo who has to leave her small home finding another shelter in Tehran, and it’s where we find ourselves beside Arezoo and her problems.

BIOGRAPHY:  

Director, screenwriter, born in 1954 in Tehran, B.A. in film directing from Dramatic Arts University, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad began her career as documentary filmmaker for Iranian TV and after some experiences as assistant director, made her first feature film Off the Limits (1987). There is a social attitude in her works and women play the leading role in most of them. Her films have been world-widely successful, winner of many international prizes. She's been the member of jury in several international film festivals, and is now considered as one of the best Iranian directors.

FILMOGRAPHY

Feature:    

  • OFF THE LIMITS         1987
  • CANARY YELLOW       1988
  • FOREIGN CURRENCY   1989
  • NARGESS                  1991
  • THE BLUE VEILED      1994
  • THE MAY LADY         1998
  • BARAN & THE NATIVE     1999, An episode of the film KISH
  • UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY      2000
  • OUR TIMES...                              2002

Documentary:    

  • THE CULTURE OF CONSUMPTION    1979
  • OCCUPATION OF MIGRANT PEASANTS IN CITY    1980
  • THE WAR ECONOMIC PLANNING    1981
  • CENTRALIZATION     1982
  • THE 1992 REPORT    1992
  • SPRING TO SPRING    1993
  • WHOM DO YOU SHOW THESE FILMS?    1994
  • THE LAST VISIT WITH IRAN DAFTARI    1995
  • UNDER THE SKIN OF THE CITY              1996

 FESTIVALS:

  1. Locarno Int'l Film Festival 2002 (Winner of Netpac prize) (Switzerland)
  2. Montreal Int’l Film Festival 2002 (Canada)
  3. Quebec City’s Int’l film Festival 2002 (Canada)
  4. Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) 2002 (USA)
  5. Vancouver Int’l Film Festival 2002 (Canada)
  6. Flanders Int’l Film Festival 2002 (Belgium)
  7. Tempo Documentary Festival 2002 (Sweden)
  8. International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2002 (IDFA )
  9. Festival des 3 Continents 2002 (France)
  10. Rice Media Center 2003 (USA)
  11. Bangkok International Film Festival 2003 (Thailand )
  12. Festival de Cinema de Rennes 2003 (France)
  13. Thessaloniki Documentary Festival 2003 (Greek)
  14. San Francisco Film Society 2003 (USA)
  15. Tribeca International Film Festival 2003 (USA)
  16. Flying Broom Women’s Film festival 2003 (Turkey)
  17. Froum Des Image 2003 (France)
  18. Museum of Fine Arts 2003 (USA)
  19. Music Center 2004 (USA)
  20. Seattle Film Festival 2004 (USA)
  21. Madstone Theaters 2004 (USA)
  22. Women's Film Festival in Seoul 2004 (Korea)
  23. The Danish Film Institute/Cinematheque 2004 (Denmark)
  24. Deutsch Filmmuseum 2004 (Germany)
  25. Far Near Distance 2004 (Germany)
  26. Woman Makes Waves Film Festival 2004 (Taiwan)
  27. Mass Moca Film Festival 2004 (USA)
  28. Kara Film Festival (2004/ Pakistan)
  29. La Rochelle Int'l Film Festival (29 June – 9 July 2007/ France)
  30. Helsinki Documentary Int’l Film Festival (23 – 27 January 2008/ Finland)
  31. Black Movie Int’l Film Festival (1 – 10 February 2008/ Switzerland)
  32. British Film Institute (23 – 30 April 2008/ UK)
  33. Iranian Film Festival in Netherland (16 – 20 Oct. 2008/ Netherlands)

DIRECTOR’S VIEW:

During the presidential elections of 1997 in Iran, more than twenty million people gave their vote to Khatami. Four years later in 2001, lots of them, disappointed of process of reformations, were discouraged in re-voting Khatami. But in the meantime, Iranian youngsters, forming more than half of the country’s population, participated actively in elections with this aim that their support would strengthen Khatami against conservative forces. The presence of those who, for the first time, were taking part in a political movement, and also ”Arezu ”, a young lady at the highest level of poorness and family problems who introduced herself as a presidency candidate, became the reasons that encouraged me to make a film about this period to be recorded in the history...

REVIEWS

by DEBORAH YOUNG

Both a fascinating glimpse into the recent presidential elections in Iran and a devastating portrait of women’s role in society, ”Our Times” is a refreshing documentary antidote to a wave of sociological fiction films covering much the same ground. First part follows a group of 22-year-old college girls who opened a campaign office for the successful reformist candidate Mohammad Khatami. Second half explores the life of an unsuccessful presidential candidate (there were 711, of whom 48 were women), Arezoo Bayat, a 25-year-old divorced mother. Outspoken director Rakhshan Bani-Etemad (”The May Lady,” ”Under the Skin of the City”) paints an unforgettable picture of women in today’s Iran, emphasizing their indomitable determination to have a voice in politics despite the cards being stacked against them. Pic should put in a lot of festival mileage.

Leafleting for 1Chatami on the streets prior to the election, a group of high-spirited young women refuse the men’s suggestion that they wear a more conservative headdress. ”We’re voting for freedom,” one says. To skeptical bystanders who doubt whether any elected president can carry out reforms against the wi11 of Iran’s powerful clergy, they confidently defend the limited results Khatami has achieved in his first term: ”He does as much as he can.”

Arezoo’s story shows how difficult life can he for a woman without a husband. After divorcing two men addicted to drugs, she’s now sole breadwinner for her blind mother and her daughter. The little girl attends a special school for kids without fathers. Arezoo holds down two grueling jobs to make ends meet, while aspiring to take college courses. Her landlord is throwing them out and no one will rent to a single woman. She’s fired for taking time off to go apartment-hunting. Yet, at a point where many a fiction film would end in tragedy, this real-life heroine, beautiful, self-confident and emotiona1, decides Lo run for president

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