Iranian documentary filmmaker and women's rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi said she had to turn to fiction in order to confront her own experiences of torture in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison and share them with others.
Her film “Roja,” which will premiere at the Berlin Film Festival on Wednesday, is about a fictional teacher detained in Evin, but it is also a deeply personal achievement for Mohammadi, Reuters reports. She has been arrested multiple times in Iran on charges of endangering national security and propaganda.
"If I wanted to tell my personal story, it wouldn't be able to be shown. I censored a lot of things (in the film) to make it at least somewhat bearable to watch," she said in an interview with Reuters.
"I couldn't resort to a completely classical narrative. I had to find a language for this film to tell the story, because I wanted to give the audience the opportunity to experience it," she said, speaking in English.
Since her first feature film, "Son-Mother," in 2019, Mohamadi has not had permission to film in Iran, and she filmed "Roja" illegally.
Evin Prison, which holds numerous political prisoners, intellectuals, dual nationals and others, has long been a symbol of the Islamic Republic's crackdown on opponents, and human rights organizations have condemned what they say is the systematic use of torture.
Mohamadi said that after her experiences in prison, it was difficult for her to return to filmmaking, but that she forced herself to do so in order to give a voice to the "silenced."
"Actually, for me, being in front of the camera is one of the most painful things, because when you're being tortured, you're sitting in front of the camera," said Mohamadi.
Mohammadi declined to provide details about her own detention, partly because “Roja” is not intended as a personal testimony, but rather reflects a broader “shared experience.”
Her film is being shown at a time when Iran is once again in the international spotlight, after clerical authorities there suppressed protests across the country in the bloodiest crackdown since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Mohammadi said the latest campaign of mass arrests and intimidation shows how unbearable living conditions in Iran have become.
Despite the uncertainty currently prevailing in her country, Mohammadi says she hopes to return after completing a project. "My home is Iran, but now... I don't have a home. I'm kind of a nomad, just traveling until I finish my project," she said.
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