Sansur

Description

2023 • Fiction • 87 mins • Country of production: Netherlands • Original language: Persian

National release: January 27.

Sansur, the Persian word for “censorship,” follows six Iranian women who refused to bow to the state. An artist, a teacher, a journalist, an athlete, a musician, an actress. Six stories of resistance, six lives shattered or rebuilt through arrests, harassment and forced exile. Through their stories, this creative documentary explores the sacrifices demanded of Iranian women and what censorship, including mandatory hijab wearing, means for their identity, individuality and dreams.

The Portraits

1. An artist from the island of Hormuz, who creates ancient Persian masks after facing the systematic censorship of women’s artistic expression.
2. A teacher from Tehran, expelled from the national education system for discussing taboo subjects, including sexuality, the body and freedom, with her students.
3. Yasaman Khaleghian, a journalist who fled to Turkey after exposing the regime’s involvement in the crash of flight PS752.
4. Soodeh Lashkari, a member of the national cricket team, who discovered that training camps were in fact prayer camps.
5. Kimia Ghorbani, the first female street musician in Tehran, arrested several times, who is rebuilding her life in Italy.
6. Golshifteh Farahani, an internationally acclaimed actress, expelled from Iran in 2012, who has lived in exile in the Netherlands ever since.