Festival Films A-Z

Golden Girls Filmproduktion
Fockygasse 33/1
1120 Wien
Österreich
Tel.: +43 1 810 56 36
E-Mail: office@goldengirls.at
Internet:
www.goldengirls.at

Arash, Arman, Azy, Ali, Geza Horvat, Bernhard J. Schmid, Hossein, Ilse Lahofer, Michael Katz

Dieter Pichler, Arash, Christoffer Koller

Musik: Karuan

First Hand Films
Esther van Messel
Mehringdamm 33
10961 Berlin
Deutschland
Tel.: +49 30 28 52 90 88
Fax: +49 30 28 52 90 99
E-Mail: info@firsthandfilms.com

Filmladen GmbH
Mariahilfer Straße 58/7
1070 Wien
Österreich
Tel.: +43 01 52 34 36 20
E-Mail: office@filmladen.at
Internet: www.filmladen.de

Synopsis

A story of a family - typical, crazy and unique at the same time. A film about home and exile, parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters and all the other relatives, close and distant, in an extended Persian family. Some of them have emigrated to Europe or America, though the majority have stayed in Iran. Regardless of all the dangers involved, they secretly meet after 20 years in a place which won't raise suspicion among the Iranian authorities: Mecca. They come from America, Sweden, Austria and Iran to laugh, argue, cook and celebrate. This is accompanied by an excessive amount of hugging and kissing, and there is also a clash between Muslim and Western cultures.

"One thing I wanted to avoid was making a political propaganda film, because propaganda films are too one-sided and quickly become irrelevant, as we?ve seen so many times in cinematic history. The fact that the film is political (which often comes out in a subtle way) and clearly takes a stand against the dictatorial regime will be obvious to anyone who isn't prejudiced. But it shouldn't be forgotten that Exile Family Movie is a documentary film, and that it's about real people who have lives before and after it. For this reason I consider it a moral duty not to use them for my propaganda.
Although Exile Family Movie is based on a personal story, it touches upon more and more other themes as it progresses, including, in a general way, the clash of different worldviews. However, it's very important to me that this clash involves more than just conflict, that it's entertaining, humorous and unpredictable as life itself. Such lightness when dealing with what is in fact a sad situation has, of course, been my family's survival strategy over the past decades." Arash

Biography

Eclipsa - nam ce face - Soll die Welt doch untergehen (2000), Die Souvenirs des Herrn X (2004), Exile Family Movie (2006)

Filmography

Eclipsa - nam ce face - Soll die Welt doch untergehen (2000), Die Souvenirs des Herrn X (2004), Exile Family Movie (2006)

Dates

04	01.10.2007	21:00	Festsaal
34	04.10.2007	20:30	Festsaal
101	10.10.2007	21:30	Filmhaus