Where God Is Not

Mehran Tamadon / France, Switzerland / 2023 / Czech Premiere / 112 min.

synopsis

Under the direction of director Mehran Tamadon, an empty warehouse on the outskirts of Paris is transformed into a prison cell. He reconstructs the claustrophobic space according to the descriptions of three people who were imprisoned by the Iranian regime for their political views. Taghi Rahmani is a proscribed journalist who was harshly interrogated countless times. Mazyar Ebrahimi ran a film equipment rental business and was accused of espionage after a competitor slandered him. Homa Kahlori experienced torture at the hands of Iranian jailors in the 1980s. While each of them describes and re-enacts in detail the effect of the horrific experiences on the body and mind, we wonder along with the director whether there is a staging method that could ever capture similar hardships to their full extent.

“In Where God Is Not, I tried to be delicate with my characters, because the trauma is huge, and I had to take care of them. I always tried to make sure that they could go on; I kept asking them how they felt. I was really with them, and I understood that re-creating these scenes could even help them a bit. But it wasn't my sole goal to help them; it was to make the film. I don't think that a filmmaker is an angel or that he has only good intentions.” — Mehran Tamadon

Source: Cineuropa

biography

Mehran Tamadon (1972) was born in Tehran. He has lived in France since the age of twelve. After his studies, he worked for four years as an architect in Iran. Since 2002, he has been working exclusively as an artist. He is the author of several art installations and the director of the feature films Bassidji (2009), Iranien (2014) and My Worst Enemy (2023).