Iran and Iraq Move Audiences at IFFI 2025 with Stories of Survival and Hope

What emerged was a shared emotional landscape—a bridge between Tehran and Baghdad—built not through geopolitics, but through storytelling.

In a profoundly moving press conference at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2025, filmmakers from Iran and Iraq came together to share cinematic stories shaped by sanctions, censorship, dictatorship, and the indomitable resilience of everyday people. Both teams—representing Iran’s My Daughter’s Hair (Raha) and Iraq’s The President’s Cake—offered a rare cross-cultural dialogue that transcended borders, weaving together personal memory, political trauma, and cinematic vision.

What emerged was a shared emotional landscape—a bridge between Tehran and Baghdad—built not through geopolitics, but through storytelling.

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‘My Daughter’s Hair (Raha)’: A Family in Crisis, A Nation in Reflection

Representing Iran’s feature film My Daughter’s Hair (Raha), competing for the Best Debut Feature Film of a Director, Director Seyed Hesam Farahmand Joo and Producer Saeid Khaninamaghi spoke candidly about the personal and political roots of their film.

Hesam explained that the story is drawn from his own lived experiences. The central premise—a teenage girl selling her hair to buy a laptop—captures the quiet heartbreak experienced by many Iranian women navigating financial hardship, gendered expectations, and emotional sacrifices.

“I wanted to portray the situation of women in my country,” Hesam shared. “Raha’s sacrifice is symbolic of countless women who make silent compromises every day.”

Khaninamaghi placed the film against a larger socio-economic backdrop:

• Years of international sanctions

• Deteriorating purchasing power

• Disappearing middle-class security

“People are going down financially. The middle class is becoming poor,” he said. “In our film, the collapse of a family over a single laptop is exactly what is happening in Iranian society.”

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A Visual Language Rooted in Real Life—Not Stereotypes

Hesam spoke passionately against stereotypical portrayals of poverty often imposed on Middle Eastern cinema for international audiences. He firmly rejected the “drab, gritty poverty aesthetic” that many foreign producers expect.

“Poor families also have colour, joy, and celebration,” Hesam said. “I wanted the frames to look exactly like life. Families laugh. They decorate their homes. They find beauty amidst difficulty. My visuals needed to reflect that truth.”

He added that he is committed to bringing socially grounded films into mainstream Iranian cinema—films that blend realism with commercial appeal—hinting that his next project follows the same vision.

Producer Khaninamaghi, however, highlighted the persistent challenges filmmakers face due to censorship. “Parts of films get cut, and the audience struggles to understand the full story,” he said, underscoring the gaps created by state restrictions.

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‘The President’s Cake’: A Fairy Tale Shaped by Dictatorship and Survival

Representing Iraq’s The President’s Cake, Editor Alexandru-Radu Radu delivered a gripping account of a film rooted in fear, absurdity, and the personal trauma of a nation under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship during the 1990s. The film competes for the prestigious ICFT UNESCO Gandhi Medal.

Radu explained that every actor in the film is a street-cast non-professional, selected from ordinary life—women at markets, children in alleyways, men in workshops. This unusual choice gives the film raw immediacy and authenticity seldom seen in Iraqi cinema.

The story revolves around Lamia, a young girl forced to bake a birthday cake for the dictator—a bizarre, surreal command that mirrors the absurd cruelty of authoritarian regimes.

“When dictators demand celebration, the people suffer,” Radu said. “The sanctions broke the poor, not the powerful.”

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The First Art-House Film in Iraq: A New Industry in the Making

Radu noted the film holds a unique place in Iraqi cinema.

“Unlike Iran, Iraq doesn’t have a rich film tradition,” he explained. “The President’s Cake is the first art-house film in Iraq. Directors like Hasan Hadi are now building that industry from scratch.”

Director Hasan Hadi envisioned the narrative as a fairy tale drenched in fear, where Lamia’s struggles symbolize Iraq itself—its innocence, its suffering, and its fight for dignity.

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Two Films, Two Nations, One Shared Truth

Despite vast cultural differences, both films orbit similar themes:

• The crushing weight of sanctions

• The resilience of ordinary citizens

• The everyday negotiations of dignity

• Women and children bearing the brunt of political turmoil

• Art as a mirror to lived social realities

By the end of the discussion, the room felt as though it held a shared heartbeat—two nations bound by artistic courage, expressing trauma through craft, and giving voice to stories often silenced by geopolitics.

IFFI 2025 not only showcased their films but amplified the universality of human struggle—revealing how cinema becomes a refuge, a witness, and ultimately, a bridge between worlds.