Shahid

Director Narges Shahid Kalhor no longer wants to be called “Shahid” (martyr) as her surname and casts an actress as herself, who is supposed to set about changing the family name. All of a sudden, her bizarre great-grandfather appears. A man who was declared a martyr in Iran after his heroic death a hundred years ago and thus bequeathed to his descendants the honorific “Shahid”. He seeks to prevent his great-granddaughter from going through with her plan.

The temporal layers blend into each other and a nerve-racking quarrel arises between the director and her actress. While the format of the film shifts between reality, fiction, theatre and musical, everyone’s plans come to nought: The director founders on the obstacles of bureaucracy, the actress on the director’s demands, the great-grandfather on the descendant’s stubborn will, and finally the film itself on its own premise. In the process, the film questions all kinds of radical ideologies – while not taking itself all too seriously either. Shahid is a personal film about the balancing act between coming to terms with the past, with the present, and with one’s own self.