A rich new work from the streets of Kabul
Shot on the streets of Kabul, Granaz Moussavi’s (My Tehran For Sale) outstanding new feature is in the tradition of the great child-centred works of the 1980s when filmmakers such as Kiarostami, Panahi and Amir Naderi (to whom this film is dedicated) were putting Iranian cinema in the forefront of world production. 9-year-old Hewad is an irrepressible, street-smart kid who is energetically working every angle, hustling everything from pomegranate juice to amulets to protection from the evil eye. His real ambition is to be a movie star, and this comes a step closer when he meets an Australian photographer. But in a city where every family has a member who has been “martyred,” the streets are as perilous as they are vivid. Australia’s recent involvement with Afghanistan has been mixed, to say the best. The deeply-felt humanism of this film might just be our most effective contribution to that troubled country.
Granaz Moussavi
Granaz Moussavi was born in Tehran. She received an honours degree in screen studies from Flinders University and a postgraduate degree in film editing at the Australian Film Television and Radio School. She has completed a doctorate in the field of poetic cinema at the University of Western Sydney. She has published several books of poetry translated into 9 languages. Her initial feature film, My Tehran for Sale premiered at AFF in 2009.
