Film and Talk

The Berlinale has been present worldwide for many years with specially curated programs. The Berlinale Spotlight format extends the festival period.
Shortly before the start of the 74th Berlinale, the next Berlinale Spotlight will take place on February 13, 2024 at the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin. La Sirène by Sepideh Farsi, which opened the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlinale, will be shown. It will be followed by a discussion with the Iranian director.

1980 in the oil metropolis of Abadan, the largest port city in Iran. 14-year-old Omid is playing soccer with his friends when a rocket hits a nearby refinery. The attack by the Iraqi army quickly plunges the city into chaos. At home, Omid just sees his older brother getting into a van taking fighters to the front. While his mother has already packed her belongings and is ready to flee with the family, Omid refuses. He and his grandfather stay behind. Too young to take up arms himself, he becomes a provider for a group of people left behind in need. He is determined not to give up the search for his brother and an escape route from the encircled city.
Director Sepideh Farsi stages the outbreak of the bloody Iran-Iraq war as a boy's struggle for survival in a besieged city with a precise eye, a detailed narrative and a minimalist animation style. Along the way, Omid meets various people who find themselves at a turning point in their lives as a result of the war and have to plan their future anew.

The event will be held in German. The film will be shown in Farsi with German subtitles.

Program of the Berlinale Spotlight on February 13 at 7:00 pm

Welcome
Gundula Bavendamm, Director Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation
Michael Stütz, Head of the Panorama section

Screening
La Sirène (The Siren)
By Sepideh Farsi (France, Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium)
Followed by a Q&A with Sepideh Farsi

Admission is free of charge

The Berlinale Spotlight: Panorama is a cooperation between the Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation and the European Film Market (EFM) of the Berlin International Film Festival.

In addition to the Berlinale Spotlight, three short films (English, total length 12 min.) by Sepideh Farsi will be shown in the foyer before and after the screening: "Daughters of Iran", "How I decided to make films" and "Bahman" were made in the course of 2023, since the uprising "Woman, Life, Freedom" began in Iran. What the short films have in common is that they question the relationship between cinema and engagement, an often prominent element in Farsi's work.