Radiograph of a Family
Winner of Best Feature-Length Documentary at IDFA in 2020, this tale about the Iranian Revolution begins in Switzerland. Director Firouzeh Khosrovani draws a portrait of her parents’ marriage—her father a secular doctor who studied radiography in Europe, her mother a faithful Muslim unable to adapt to European ways—using archival footage and family photographs. The result is a modern-day story of alienation, yearning and fanaticism that illuminates a shifting era in Iranian history.
Soheila Golestani, Christophe Rezai, Farahnaz Sharifi
- Notes From Ed LachmanThis is a documentary about the filmmaker’s mother and father. It’s a story of Iran’s modern history of struggle between secularism and Islamic ideology. It’s also a remarkable story of Khosrovani’s parents’ arranged marriage in Switzerland before they go to live in Tehran. The film uses narrative devices that show the transformation of the family’s connections to each other, with a recurring tracking shot of the interior of their house as it changed over time, Super 8 films and photographs of the family history depicting how the Islamic revolution affected their lives. It is an X-ray of Iranian society and one family living in it.