This extraordinary omnibus film presents seven shorts made by a group of blind women who each participated in a yearlong filmmaking workshop initiated by director Mohammad Shirvani. Each short opens an intensely intimate window on the everyday experience of the blind while the collection as a whole raises fascinating questions about the nature of cinema itself.
Born in 1973 in Tehran, Mohammad Shirvani made his first short film, THE CIRCLE, in 1999. It was among the 7 short films selected by International Critics’ Week in Cannes that year. Since then he has made 8 short fiction films and 6 documentary and experimental feature films, which have been screened in more than 200 festivals around the world and won prestigious awards. His first long feature film will be released in 2009. At present, he is the president of the independent Iranian Short Film Association (ISFA).
Shirvani’s daring and unconventional approach to filmmaking is, perhaps, most apparent with his latest project. After experiencing a dream in which he turned blind he began thinking about how the blind related to his medium. Spurred on by these thoughts he began running workshops for blind women, introducing them to the film making process.