Missing

Farahnaz Sharifi / Iran / 2017 / World Premiere / 60 min.

synopsis

Once we begin to consider certain people, items, or memories as our own, we lay ourselves open to the threat that we’ll lose them. Once the loss actually occurs, our mental image of the lost thing doesn’t disappear – on the contrary – it intensifies. This documentary, inspired by the stories of missing people in Iranian newspapers, searches for people who have disappeared for various reasons, but their tracks still resonate. A wide spectrum of archival materials offers a variety of answers to the question of how the absent can remain present, while live images of grieving loved ones then act as an appeal to all those who would brush off this painful ambivalence.

„It could be so simple at times. We just leave home and forget to return. Or don’t want to return. Or cannot return...” F. Sharifi

biography

Farahnaz Sharifi (1977) is one of the most successful contemporary Iranian documentary filmmakers. Her films have appeared at Ji.hlava twice: in 2012, her film Revolutionary Memories of Bahman Who Loved Leila (2012) and a year later a collective work by seven Iranian directors Profession: Documentarian (2013). The central motif of blending personal and historical memories links Missing with the first of the above-mentioned films.

more about film

director:	Farahnaz Sharifi
producer:	Ehsan Rasoulof
photography:	Mohammadreza Jahanpanah
editing:	Farahnaz Sharifi
music:	Farshad Fozouni
sound:	Mehrshad Malakouti