An Owl, A Garden And The Writer
by Sara Dolatabadi
France / Iran, 2023
synopsis
In 2016, Sara began documenting her visits to her family’s garden outside of Tehran. Here, she spends her days with her father, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, one of the most prolific contemporary Iranian novelists. A man who has lived through poverty, imprisonment, revolution, war, political repression, and censorship. Sara counters her parent’s version of events by narrating her own perspective as a child. Having been inspired throughout her life by Mahmoud, Sara incorporates her daughter’s imaginary adventures along with narration of passages of Mahmoud’s writings.
about the directors
Sara Solatabadi is an Iranian multimedia visual artist. Her life was transformed at a young age when the Islamic Revolution changed the political landscape in Iran and by the Iran-Iraq War, which she experienced through the eyes of a child. These memories influenced her practice as a visual artist and filmmaker, which can be seen as a meeting point between the microcosm of the personal and the macrocosm of the political. After receiving her BFA from Azad Art University (Tehran), she spent the next decade living and exhibiting in Tokyo, Paris and New York. While in New York, she obtained her MFA from Hunter College and, for her thesis, she directed and produced a short documentary, Summer Light, about her family.
