Private: Screening at Cinéma Écoles Cinéma Club in Paris

Private, an award winner short film directed by Iranian filmmaker Sara Mokhavat, will screen on 23 November 2023, in Cinéma Écoles Cinéma Club, Paris, France, during the Children Care International Film Festival.

After The Chicago International Film Festival 2021, Nepal International Film Festival (NIFF) 2022, The Vaughan International Film Festival 2022, and Symbiotic Film Festival in Kyiv, Ukraine, the winner of the Director Without Borders award at Discover Film Festival 2023 will experience another exited screening at Cinéma Écoles Cinéma Club, Paris, France, and during the Children Care International Film Festival.

The International Children Care Film Festival is organized by Blesh Production, Association Law 1901, based in Paris. The festival’s third edition will take place in Paris at Cinéma’s partner Ecoles Cinéma Clubs, 23 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris, from November 21st to November 25th, 2023. In these times of violence and social crisis, the festival wants to focus on the theme of child protection and the various systems of protecting childhood around the world with a focus on Children’s rights, but focusing especially on films that show the different forms of violence against children: physical and psychological violence, neglect, sexual abuses, children prostitution, children exploited at work, migrant children, all addictions, intra-family acts of violence, the dangers of the Internet and the social networks, school harassment, poverty, children illness, and disability, exclusion of LGBT youth, political and religious radicalization, child and war…

Private, one of the most important short films by Iranian filmmaker Sara Mokhavat tries to challenge social problems and women’s restrictions in Iran. Sara Mokhavat describes the project by saying: People are getting bored with their ordinary lives and trying to escape from that, but not us! We are searching for it, idealizing it, trying to picture it, and reaching out to it. Having a private life, the right to choose what to wear, what to believe, what to eat, and so on are essential parts of regular life for everybody. The long ongoing critical situation in my homeland, Iran, has been the first motivation for my artistic works. The short film is not an exception. My country has been disabled for a long time over huge gaps between different generations.

Between sanctimonious people who rule the country and young non-religious individuals. There is no balance. Falling is our eternal current situation. So “normal” is a keyword for us, a desire that we can always only dream it. In every work I have done so far, the track of this concept is traceable. But in this short film, my point of view is a little different. This time I have tried so hard to be impartial. I interviewed more than 80 students, teachers, and school principals, to be impartial in this subject. After that, I shared the plot with a few sociologists and psychologists. And, then I wrote the first edition of the screenplay. In the shaping characters process, I worked with sociologists and psychologists constantly. I needed to mirror the story realistically, not only in the screenplay but also in all cinematic aspects. I tried to stay loyal to realism. It was a big challenge because I consistently think metaphorically, and my works are predominantly surreal. This film is the resumption of my eternal search for finding a path to reach out to “Normal”. It is not just for myself. It is for my people. Every artist can become their people’s voice and that is my intention. I put much effort into Private to get it close to that goal. It is a unique experience for me.

SYNOPSYS:

In a girl-high school, in downtown Tehran, at the blank spot on the school’s CCTV, something horrible had happened, something very unusual. The staffs are so angry, devastated, and shocked. The school principal decides to take action to control the situation and calm the air. She summons three students who she believes are involved with the issue. The girls are desperately trying to prove their innocence. But the staff doesn’t accept their claims. In these critical circumstances, when their confused and angry parents arrive, another situation comes up…