Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi almost landed in prison for his latest film, Bidad. Now it's landed him the Special Jury Award at the 59th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.
Bidad, which is also known by its English title, Outcry, won the prize over the weekend at the festival, sometimes dubbed as Central Europe’s largest cinema party.
The story focuses on a young girl who sings in the street despite a ban on such displays in Iran. The women in the movie do not wear the mandatory hijab, or head scarf, further flaunting the country's strict rules on how women can dress in public.
The subject matter is so taboo that Beiraghi shot the film independently to avoid censors.
That attempt failed with Beiraghi revealing earlier this month that he and several members of the Bidad team had been sentenced in Iran to punishments including prison time and fines.
According to a copy of the court ruling, the director was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. However, the court later commuted the sentence to a monetary fine.
Still, concerns over the situation led event organizers to keep the film's inclusion in the festival under wraps until just before opening night to ensure the safety of the filmmakers as they left the country amid fears of a potential backlash over the film’s portrayal of the Iranian government.
In accepting the award Beiraghi thanked Iranian women for inspiring the film saying "the girls and women of Iran don't need anyone's pity. They deserve appreciation, respect, and a standing ovation.”
Afterward, he told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that despite the court ruling against him, he still plans to return to Iran.
He explained that making a film about women wasn’t a calculated decision but rather an “instinctive” one, and that strong women have always been a source of inspiration for him.
“We’re living in an era of powerful women,” Beiraghi said. “It’s not easy being a woman in Iran.”
Ever since the 1979 revolution, women in Iran have been forbidden from performing solo vocals in public.
Yet in the face of these limitations, countless female artists have taken to social media to make their voices heard, challenging both the ban on solo singing and the country’s rigid hijab regulations.
