PARADISE

Hanieh, 24, belongs to the middle class of Tehran and drives a long way out every morning to teach at a primary school in a poor, restive suburb. She has applied for a transfer to the city, but her application is stuck somewhere in the Iranian bureaucracy. In the daily life of the school, on the bus and in the street, checks, reprimands and small assaults cross her path, and Hanieh accepts them the way one accepts the weather. “Paradise” (Ma dar behesht, Iran/Germany 2015) by Sina Ataeian Dena is about the violence of everyday life, without ever staging it.

Shot without a permit on the streets of Tehran; Hanieh encounters passers-by who do not know they are being filmed – document and fiction become intertwined. It premiered in competition at Locarno in 2015, where the film received the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Swatch Art Peace Hotel Award; the Special Jury Prize in Marrakech followed. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2015.

Shown at the 2015 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.

All films 2015 · Film Archive