Our Times

From the beginning of her documentary work, director Rakhshan Bani-Eternad has been dealing with sensitive social and women’s issues in Iran. Her feature film THE MAY LADY, which was screened some years ago in the Netherlands, dared to show a single mother who is in love with someone we do not see, but only hear. In RUZEGAR-E MA / OUR TIMES, the director is intrigued by her own daughter and her friends, students of the acting and art academy, because of their enormous enthusiasm in supporting Khatami in the election campaign. These young people, confident in the future, are driven by high hopes. The meetings of Khatami and his supporters are bursting with euphoria, with young girls fainting and screaming in excitement and joy. In a parallel story, the film reveals the life story of a young woman who also presented herself as a candidate for the presidency. She is a single mother, living with her blind mother in a rented flat. She is forced to find new accommodation in the short term, but nobody wants to rent a flat to a woman without a husband. Finally, the film crew put some money together and saved the heroine of this documentary from being thrown out onto the street. Strongly, directly and fearlessly, the director challenges the coexistence of tradition and progress in Iranian society today.