MAST-DEL

Maryam Tafakory, Iran/England, digital, 17 min, 2023

Two women lie together in bed. As the wind bashes against the window, one recalls a past date to the cinema. The narrated scene cannot be conveyed through images. Layers of found and original footage are superimposed to fill in some of the cracks, the deletions, the limits of representation. A love song that would never pass through the censors, Mast-del is about forbidden bodies and desires inside and outside post-revolution Iranian cinema.

Maryam Tafakory (1987). 10+ films since 2104; screenings at venues including Cannes Directors Fortnite International Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Locarno Film Festival, Museum of the Moving Image, Toronto International Film Festival, and New York Film Festival. Tiger Short Award at International Film Festival Rotterdam (2018), two Aesthetica Emerging Art Prizes (2017 and 2019), Flaherty/Colgate Distinguished Global Filmmaker in Residence (2019), MacDowell Fellow (2022). Lives in Shiraz, Iran and London, England.