KARUN – THE LONGEST RIVER OF IRAN
Sahand Sarhaddi | Switzerland, Iran, Finland 2024 | 19 min. | Farsi with engl. subtitles
SUNDAY, 11.05. | 5:15 pm
De France, Saal 1 | TICKETS
Part of the Short Film Programm ISA II
Austrian premiere
Iranian poet Hamid Hajizadeh and his young son Karun were brutally murdered in their home. Sahand Sarhaddi reconstructs the events through interviews conducted with the family after the murder. The words penetrate the images of a ravaged apartment and a blood-soaked carpet, weaving together traumatic memories with the crime scene. The cracks in the walls are a reminder of what remains hidden, what has been repressed.
In KARUN – THE LONGEST RIVER OF IRAN, Sarhaddi sensitively names one of the many stories of politically motivated crimes that took place in Iran at the end of the 1990s.
Director: Sahand Sarhaddi
Camera: Reza Didar
Editing: Anne-Mari Musturi / Sahand Sarhaddi
Sound: Azadeh Zandiyeh
Production: Srikandi Films / Sahand Sarhaddi productions
Music: Payam Hashemi Tari
SCREENINGS & AWARDS
-Jihlava Documentary Film Festival Official Selection, Czech Republic / October 2024
-Fipadoc Documentary Film Festival Official Selection, France / January 2025
-Movies that Matters Film Festival Official Selection, Netherlands / March 2025
BIOGRAPHY
B.1991 Iran
Filmmaker & Visual artist grappling with historical archives, literature, and photography, seeking innovative narrative pathways through an unconventional exploration of history and unofficial narratives.
Alumni of Berlinale Talents 2023 & Graduated in Theatre and Dramatic Literature at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University in 2015. His artistic work focuses on integrating untold stories in history, photography, music, and literature. He has participated in more than ten solo and group exhibitions and created three short and one feature-length film that has been screened at festivals such as Berlinale, Jihlava, Fipadoc, Kasseler Dok, Black Movie, Movies that Matters, Tehran Short Film, Cinema-Verite, Fajr, VideoFormes, etc.
-Winner of the Emerging Video Prize in the 39th VIDEOFORMES Festival 2024
-Arte Laguna Prize Finalist, Arsenal Nord, Venice, Italy 2024
-Selected as Best Short Documentary of the 2010s in Iranian Cinema 2021
-Twice chosen as Best Short Film of the Year by critics of Fidan Magazine, 2021 and 2023
