1980, Abadan. The capital of the Iranian oil industry is resisting an Iraqi siege. Amongst them is the 14-year-old Omid, who chose to stay in the city with his grandfather, waiting for his elder brother to return from the frontline. Along with Omid, a gallery of unusual characters have all remained in the city for their own reasons, and each resists in his or her own way. But how can you resist in a war without taking up arms? Then Omid finds an abandoned ship in Abadan’s harbour.
She was born in Tehran in 1965 and came to Paris in 1984 to study mathematics, but soon drifted towards cinema. She began directing the short films ‘Northwind’ (1993) and ‘Water Dreams’ (1997), before making documentaries such as ‘The World Is My Home’ (1999) or ‘Homi Sethna, Filmmaker’ (2001), the latter awarded at Cinema du Reel. In 2002 she directed her first feature film, ‘Journey of Maryam’, which was followed by ‘Dreams of Dust’ (2003) and ‘The Gaze’ (2006), both premiered at Rotterdam FF. Her documentaries ‘Harat’ (2007) and ‘Tehran Without Permission’ (2009) were released in Locarno. In 2014 she broke taboos in Iranian cinema with ‘Red Rose’, which premiered in Toronto, and with ‘7 Veils’ (2017) she won the Grand Prix at FIDMarseille. ‘The Siren’ (2023) is her first animated feature film.