Anticlockwise

Filmmaker Jalal Vafaee’s father, a devoted watchmaker in the Iranian city of Hamadan, was on the side of the Islamic Revolution in his younger years. He has now become a democratic reformist, and is obsessed with the political news and injustice he sees around him. From his shop he tries to find a way to deal with his disappointment in politics. At the same time, holding such democratic opinions isn’t without risk.

Vafaee tells the story of his family from 2011 to 2019, showing how their world has radically changed. His brother was imprisoned, and the experience has marked him for life. His absence also badly affected his son, whose only way to express his feelings is through his raps.

This moving, candid self-portrait of a highly politically engaged family reveals the struggle they face under the Iranian regime, trapped in a loop of hope and despair, progress and decline, like a clock that moves forward—and then turns anticlockwise again.