Ghasideh Golmakani is an Iranian filmmaker, producer and writer. Born into a family of filmmakers and artists, after leaving her homeland at the age of 18, she moved to Paris, as the city symbolized the motto of revolutionary France “liberté, égalité, fraternité,” where she attended the Sorbonne to study history of art and cultural studies, specializing in the work of Iranian women filmmakers. After university, she returned to Tehran where she began practicing the art of filmmaking as a self-taught filmmaker, taking part in projects such as Today, the film that represented Iran in the 2013 edition of the Oscars, and also bringing her contribution as a writer and critic to multiple Iranian film magazines.
She soon starts writing and directing short films all set in Iran, which quickly gained international fame, such as Limbo (2017), screened at the 2017 Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films, which tells the story of a former Iraqi sniper who took refuge in Iran, where he started to tattoo the names of all the soldiers killed during the Iraq war. Online Shopping (2017) was presented at the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, starring a young woman eager to leave Iran, who begins to sell some of her possessions online, making the acquaintance of a customer who begins to behave strangely. The following work, Horn (2018), now screened at the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, tells the story of a woman who is annoyed by the blustery and sometimes harassing behavior of some men as she searches for parking on the busy streets of Tehran, trying to be on time for an important business appointment.
As can be guessed from the above plots, the shorts mainly deal with social issues and highlight the deep contradictions of traditional Iranian society, with a particular focus on the difficulties that Iranian women – but non only – have to experience on a daily basis. A particular authorial brand is imparted to these works with a style that is never pathetic, but rather leverages a strong humorous and dark component.
Moreover, Golmakani has been a member of the Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA), the Film Guilds Alliance (Khaneh Cinema) since 2017, and a member of the French Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers (SACD) since 2019.
As part of the special program dedicated to the International Jury of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, Ghasideh Golmakani presents the film:
Horn (2018, Iran, 8’)
Director: Ghasideh Golmakani
The short film, written and directed by Ghasideh Golmakani, tells the story of a woman who has to stand up to the blustery and sometimes harassing behavior of some men as she searches for parking on the busy streets of Tehran, trying to be on time for an important business appointment. The work, which has been screened at numerous film festivals, including the Brussels short Film Festival, has, among its goals, the aim of giving a less “Orientalist” – as stated by the director herself – depiction of Iranian women, who are often described as submissive and with lack of agency. Above all, the short film is shaped as a means of presenting an “honest perspective on the multifaceted and universal experience of being a woman,” through a subtle ironic vein that effectively pervades the narrative.
