For the World Premiere of his latest dramatic feature Seven Days / Haft Rooz, at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, renowned Iranian filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi spoke with Film Critic and Journalist Carolyn Hinds.
The film quite literally follows Iranian human rights activist follows Maryam (Vishka Asayesh) on the tense and isolating journey she takes through the bitterly cold mountains of Southern Iran to Turkey to possible freedom and her family.
Having spent six years in prison for her work as an activist advocating for the rights of girls and women, Maryam is granted seven days release for medical treatment due to a heart ailment. But as she undertakes this dangerous journey, her estranged family husband Behnam (Majid Bakhtiari), teenaged daughter Dena (Tanaz Molaei), and her little brother Allorz (Sam Vafa), each have to examine for themselves what her return could mean for them.
In my interview with Ali we spoke about his collaboration with the film’s writer Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig, 2024) to bring this compelling story of resistance and sacrifice to the screen, how the distance between Maryam and Dena are more than geographical, and how the camera serves as a character within the story and in filmmaking.
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